Aochibu (literally "blue dots") features small, solid blue dots densely drawn on a base color. The technique is said to have become popular during the Taisho period (1912–1916 CE). It is neither exactly painting nor exactly line drawing, but rather falling somewhere in the realm of pointillism.

The rich clusters of dots create marvelous ripple-like patterns. It takes extraordinary skill to draw uniform, tiny dots while retaining the beauty of eaoch cluster. There are color variations of aochibu as well, including shirochibu (white dots) and kinchibu (gold dots).