So far I’ve talked about writing boxes (suzuri bako) and portable writing sets (yatate), but I have yet really begun to talk about the implements that were necessary for calligraphy.  Now I’ve always known about the inkstone (suzuri), ink stick (sumi), and the brushes (fude), and understood the general technique for making the ink into a liquid; put some water on the stone, grind the stick on said stone, and the ink would pool up in the little well at the bottom.  The one necessary thing I never thought of was how to get the water to the stone; but now I know, and so shall you, a simple device called a suiteki.

The concept is very simple, a vessel with two holes, one for airflow and one for the water.  The water hole is sized to allow just a few drops of water out at a time.  I won’t go into too much specific detail more than that at this time, we’ll save that for later posts on the subject.  I do want to describe this piece a bit.

Dated to around 1880’s, made out of bronze, and very small, 2-1/4″ long by 1-1/4″ wide by 5/8″ high.  It has a beautiful patina as well as a very cool old fashioned sake gourd design raised in the upper corner.  Click on the image to go to the original source for more info and pictures.  Off topic, I’m a big fan of sake, especially a nice junmai daiginjo.  Kampai.

Related items for sale - hover mouse for more information

You might have noticed that I’ve been a little negligent in my posts lately. So I figured it was about time to get the ball rolling again, and what could be better than a nice Yatate to give that ball a push. Unfortunately, as crafty as the Japanese are, there is no digital version yet available; so I must use my QWERTY keyboard to write this post. I hope you don’t mind.

Traditionally, writing utensuls were separate items, and preparation was a timely process,. You had your brush (fude), and an ink stick (sumi) which you ground upon your ink stone (suzuri) till you got the right consistency. But during the Kamakura era (1185-1333), things changed. Someone figured out that if you put some cotton in a box (sumi tsubo) you could keep wet ink around, like the Western inkwell. Someone also decided that if you made the box longer, you could also store some brushes. Over time the design was modified, the ink box got deeper and the brush area narrowed, giving birth to the Yatate (which also later metamorphed into various forms). Depicted above is the most common form which could simply be stuffed into the obi (sash) for transport.

As a craftsman, I came to know about Yatate because I had the woodworking version, known simply as Sumitsubo. Consisting of an inkwell attached to a spool of string with a pin on the end. You pull the string through the inkwell, attach the pin to the end of a piece of wood and stretch the string across to the other end. With a little tug you snap the string and create a line on your workpiece. Thus you have the Japanese equivalent of the Western chalk line, depicted below. Cool huh?

Related items for sale - hover mouse for more information