Welcome to the World of Haku

Hello, my name is Issui. I first came to know Kinpaku, gold leaf, in my early childhood. I remember seeing it all around my house, on various kinds of Wagashi, Japanese sweets, cakes, stationery, interior items such as hanging scrolls, Japanese tableware, and of course the Kimono I wore on special days. As a child, I thought that just a little bit of Kinpaku could make our lives “special”.

Since then, I had always been interested in Kinpaku. I liked to go to museums on weekends, and I learned that Kinpaku was used in many of the classic Japanese art, including paintings and Emakimono, picture scrolls, and I felt that it represented time, space, and many kinds of light.

When I became 18, I started to take lessons of Japanese art from a private teacher as a hobby. There, I learned the basic of the Japanese art, such as how to use Sumi, Japanese ink, brush, and Haku (gold and silver leaves). Since then, reading books and studying about the history of techniques of Haku have been my biggest hobby.

 In this website, I will explain some techniques of applying Haku to the actual artwork. It will be mainly about those applied on paper.