Togidashi Maki-e: Burnished Gold

Togidashi maki-e ("polished-out sprinkled picture") is the oldest maki-e style, and technically the most involved: instead of sealing and polishing just the design, the entire surface is coated in black, oil-free roiro-urushi over the sprinkled design, fully burying it — and the design is then ground back into visibility.

1. Design painted in lacquer; gold or silver powder sprinkled over it while wet.
2. A protective coat seals the powder once cured.
3. The entire object is coated in black, oil-free roiro-urushi, burying the design completely.
4. Aratogi ("first grinding"): the surface is burnished with damp charcoal, gradually and carefully re-exposing the gold powder beneath the black overcoat.
5. Finishing: repeated thin coats of raw lacquer (suri-urushi) applied with cotton, each polished back with crumpled rice paper, then charcoal burnishing, then a final gentle polish with granular charcoal.

The result is a soft, slightly hazy, dimensionally subtle design that sits flush with the surrounding black field rather than sitting visibly on top of it — structurally different from hira maki-e even though both use sprinkled powder. The earliest known example is on a Nara-period (645–794) sword scabbard; the technique matured through the Heian period and, in the Muromachi period, was combined with raised relief to create shishiai togidashi maki-e. (Britannica, Togidashi maki-e)