Rikyū Folding Screen with Sunago “Rose Mallow”

Sunagowork

Sunago is a traditional technique to draw patterns with gold and silver leaf made into fine, sand-like powder using a bamboo cylinder with a mesh net set in the bottom.
The gold / silver powder is dusted on to a sheet of paper where animal glue is applied, and is pressed down lightly with Japanese paper.
Sunago has been used to decorate picture scrolls and writings such as handwritten copies of sutras since the end of the Heian period (794 - 1185), and in the Edo period (1603 - 1868), it was also used to decorate folding screens and fusuma (sliding paper doors) paintings. Today, sunago techniques are used for decorating fusuma and other crafts such as furosaki byobu, a folding screen used for a summer-style tea ceremony.