Ao-chibu (green dots) features the strokes of small solid green dots densely drawn on the base color. The technique is said to become popular during the Taisho period (1912–1916). It is neither painting nor line drawing.
The cluster of dots creates marvelous ripple-like patterns. It takes extraordinary skills to draw uniform, tiny dots while retaining the beauty of the cluster. There are color variations of ao-chibu: shiro-chibu (white dots) and kin-chibu (gold dots).