At the beginning of the 11th century, in relation to the general busshi who carved Buddhist statues and were actually called kibusshi (a sculptor of wooden Buddha statues), the concept of ebusshi who produced Buddhist painting first appeared, but there is a theory that it was actually in the latter half of the Kamakura period that the term 'ebusshi' came into wide use.
11世紀に入ると、仏像を制作する「木仏師」と呼ばれる一般的な仏師に対して、仏教絵画を制作する「絵仏師」という概念が現れるようになるが、「絵仏師」の語が広く用いられるようになったのは鎌倉時代後期とする説もある。