The phrase BUNBU SHIHO (文房四宝 ) or “The Four Treasures of Shodo” refer to the four essential tools of Shodo: the brush, the paper, the ink, and the inkstone.
Of these four tools, two are indispensable: the brush and the ink. Other materials can substitute the paper and the inkstone. In my 6-Week Intro course, I recommend beginning students to use newspaper or newsprint and a bowl to hold the ink. It is best to use traditional calligraphy paper once basic skills are acquired, and the inkstone is not needed until students learn to grind ink using an inkstick.
Of the two indispensable tools, the brush is the genuinely irreplaceable one. While sumi ink is imperative to traditional shodo practice, it is possible to use other ink types, like india ink or watercolor, and get similar results. Again, not ideal, but possible. However, the brush, or Fude (筆) in Japanese, is absolutely essential, and substitution is not adequate. The Fude is the only tool that one cannot do some form of shodo without it. A regular western-style painting brush neither has the shape nor is made of the right materials to produce the correct line shapes required for shodo strokes. You need a proper Chinese style ink brush.
I have used dozens of brushes over the years. Most of them were cheap ones. Some of them were reasonably priced and of good quality. And only a few have been of really high quality and steep price. Purchasing a brush has always been a struggle. There are so many questions one needs to answer before deciding what brush to buy.
The reason why buying a brush can be difficult is because it’s a highly personal thing. As a cook, I see buying a brush the same way as purchasing a kitchen knife. A chef chooses a knife based on his personality, cooking style, and different tasks expected to accomplish with the blade. For example, the chef needs a specific knife to cut vegetables and a totally different one to filet a fish. The same thing goes for choosing your brush. Before you choose a brush, you have to know what you need it for, what style of calligraphy you plan to write with it, the aesthetic look of the brush, and how much money you’re willing to spend on it.
Since most of my students are beginners, I will focus on clarifying some crucial things you must know before choosing your first brush.
When I met Yamazaki-san, a craftsman and traditional brush maker in Toyohashi, he said the handle was the least important part of the brush. He often preferred a simple handle, either made of plastic or bamboo, with no decorations or design elements. However, he admitted to creating different styles of handles over the years because customers asked for them, but in his view, that was not important at all. The handle’s look is the easiest way to tell if the brush was made in China or Japan.
The most important part of a brush is the bristles. The length and type of bristles used determine the style of the brush. Each artisan has a unique blend of bristles that they use for each brush they make. The bristles’ quality and a specific combination of different types and animals allow the brush to have the desired effect. For example, a brush made with long white goat hair will be useful to write a fast cursive script because the bristles are soft and absorb a lot of ink, while a stiffer brush made of brown horse or weasel is suitable for block script because the artist has more control in making sharp lines.
For beginners, I always recommend using what is called a combination of hair brush. These brushes are made with brown hair (horse, raccoon, weasel, or wolf) with a white hair layer (goat, sheep, or wool) either wrapping the outside or blended within. Sometimes, there is synthetic hair at the core for added strength and stability.
Brushes come in different shapes and sizes. Beginners will mostly write 2-4 characters in a sheet of hanshi (calligraphy paper). For this purpose, I recommend beginning with a medium-thick writing brush that’s 10 inches (25 cm) in total length, with a tip length of 2 inches (59mm) and a diameter between 10-11 mm. Some brush manufacturers label these as sized three.
Westerners may have difficulty reading and understanding the brush label, either carved on the handle or written on a sticker. Honestly, these labels are often not very helpful. Some brushes may have the size written on it, but many do not. The larger characters are the name of the brush, which is chosen by the maker. The smaller characters underneath are the name of the maker or manufacturer. One must be acquainted with the maker and what blend of hairs they use to know what kind of bristles are in a given brush. Most brush makers will list the properties of the brush either in the package or online listings. If you are looking for brushes on a Japanese website, here are some useful definitions:
号 – number. Used to identify the size number. There will be a number before that. Example: 3号 (size 3).
毛 – hair
羊- White hair, usually wool, sheep, or goat.
馬 – horse
狼 – wolf
イタチ – itachi “weasel”
大 – large. These are extra-large brushes.
太 – thick. These are ideal for 2-6 characters on hanshi.
中 – medium. These are ideal for 6-12 characters on hanshi.
細 – fine. These are ideal for fine print and signatures.
小 – small. These are ideal for copying sutras, signatures, and kana
Because the brush is made of organic materials, it is considered a living thing full of energy and vitality (kiai). When we write, our kiai wields the brush, and the kiai of the brush merges with our own, therefore creating lively and harmonious characters. Consequently, it is essential to select our brushes with care and use them with respect. However, I should also mention that just like a good chef can cook with any knife, a good calligrapher will write a masterpiece with any brush. However, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking we are that skillful. For now, we must spend countless hours learning how to write with one good quality brush.
Recommendations
My favorite brush to use are the Toyohashi-fude by Suse Kobo from Yamazaki-san. Toyohashi, in Aichi Prefecture, supply brushes to Japan’s elite calligraphers. Toyohashi brushes are 100% handmade by artisans following a 200-year-old tradition. These brushes are praised by their exceptional construction and the supreme blend of animal hairs for best ink absorption and distribution while maintaining a sharp tip and soft spring.
You can visit the Suse Kobo website here. While you can order brushes online, unfortunately they do not ship outside of Japan. You can, however, use a courier service like Rakuten to ship the package to you.
Kumano, in Hiroshima, is the largest manufacturer of calligraphy brushes in Japan. Many high quality shodo brushes are from Kumano. Fortunately, we can find several Kumano brushes on Amazon. Below are two I recommend: