With guitarist Rob Dean having left the band in spring 1981, Japanese musician Masami Tsuchiya (then of the group Ippu-Do) was added to the touring line-up on guitar and additional keyboards.

The band also used backing tracks to supply additional instrumental parts (for example, in contrast to some previous tours where a guest saxophonist was recruited, many of Karn's saxophone lines were played from tape.

[citation needed] The album also contained three new instrumental studio tracks ("Oil on Canvas", "Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer" and "Temple of Dawn"), recorded separately by Sylvian, Sylvian/Jansen and Barbieri respectively (the name of Barbieri's track is taken from the novel The Temple of Dawn by the acclaimed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima).

Seven years after the release of Oil on Canvas the four members of Japan, David Sylvian, Steve Jansen, Mick Karn and Richard Barbieri, reunited for another studio album, under the group moniker Rain Tree Crow.

Reviewing for Record Mirror, Betty Page described the album as "elegiac; very 'remember us this way', but also very 'Sunday Times colour supplement special offer'."