Kinpaku

What kinpaku is

Kinpaku is gold beaten to an extreme thinness. Because it will not adhere on its own, it is laid over a coat of lacquer, and that combination is the gilding technique named constantly in sculpture records.

The seated Dainichi Nyorai in a shrine cabinet at Kotokuji in Tokyo, a Kamakura-period Important Cultural Property, is described as finished in lacquer and gold leaf on both the figure and its pedestal, while the Halo is recorded separately as painted white.

Whole buildings have been gilded. The Konjikido at Chusonji in Iwate Prefecture, completed in 1124 and recorded as a National Treasure, is described as lacquered black and covered in gold leaf inside and out, from the veranda to the eaves. A technique for finishing images was applied to an entire hall.

The same entry notes that the four inner columns, the Nageshi and the Kumimono carry arabesques in mother-of-pearl over sprinkled gold, and that the columns bear bodhisattvas in gold lacquer painting. Gold leaf sits alongside the other lacquer techniques.

Reading the record

Where a record says lacquer and leaf, gold leaf has been laid over lacquer. Gold paint, ground gold mixed with glue, is a different technique, and the Kotokuji entry distinguishes the two by describing its lions as painted in gold rather than gilded.

Gold leaf flakes with age. Records note whether the original gilding survives because so many images have been regilded in later repairs.

On site, judge by the surface. A smooth, even sheet of gold is leaf; a soft, powdery lustre is paint. Where the leaf has flaked to show black lacquer beneath, the structure of the finish is visible.