Ink brush

Ink Brush

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Ink brush

Ink brushes (in Japanese fude) are used in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting

Chinese painting

Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures....
and descendant brush painting styles (such as sumi-e).

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Encyclopedia

Ink brushes (in Japanese fude) are used in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting

Chinese painting

Ink stone

An inkstone is literally a stone mortar for the grinding and containment of ink. Traditional Chinese ink was usually solidified into sticks for easier transport and preservation....
, ink

Ink

An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
(stick) and paper

Paper

Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
, the four writing implements form the Four Treasures of the Study

Four Treasures of the Study

Four Treasures of the Study is an expression used to refer to the ink brush, inkstick, paper and inkstone used in Chinese calligraphy. In Korea, it is usually written as ???? "Mun bang sa woo", which means "Four Friends of the Study." The name stems from the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties ....
.

Brushes differ greatly in terms of size, texture, material and cost.

Size: Generally classified as either big, medium or small; most calligraphy is written with a medium-sized brush. The smallest brushes are used for very small pieces and for fashioning designs for seals. Medium brushes are the most widely used; wielded by a skilled artist, a medium brush can produce a variety of thicknesses of line, from very thin to fairly thick. The largest brushes are used only for very large pieces.
Texture: Either soft, mixed or hard. Certain textures are better for writing certain styles than others are.
Material: Normally the brush is made from sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
, pig
Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
, mouse
Mouse

A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. The best known mouse species is the House Mouse . It is also a popular pet....
, buffalo, wolf and rabbit
Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. There are seven different genus in the family taxonomy as rabbits, including the European rabbit , Cottontail rabbit , and the Amami rabbit ....
hair, while exotic ones can be made from tiger
Tiger

The tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an Carnivore#Obligate carnivores....
, fowl
Fowl

Fowl is a term for birds; fowl belong to one of two order , namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl . Studies of anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups were close evolutionary relatives; together, they form the fowl clade which is scientifically known as Galloanserae ....
s, deer
Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
, yellow weasel and even human baby hair (from the first haircut a baby gets, said to bring good fortune while taking the Imperial examination
Imperial examination

The Imperial examinations in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the state's bureaucracy. The Imperial Examination System in China lasted for 1300 years, from its founding during the Sui Dynasty in 605 to its abolition near the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1905....
s).
Stalk material: Usually normal bamboo
Bamboo

The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae....
, exotic brushes instead may use materials like gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
, silver
Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
, jade
Jade

Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
, ivory
Ivory

File:Ivory decoration.jpgIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
, red sandalwood or mottled bamboo.

The material one chooses to use depends on one's needs at the moment, certain kinds of brushes are more suited to certain script styles and individuals than others are. Synthetic hair is not used. Prices vary greatly depending on the quality of the brush, cheap brushes cost less than a US dollar while expensive can cost more than a thousand. Currently, the finest brushes are made in the town of Shanlian

Shanlian

Shanlian is a small town located in northern Zhejiang Province in China, located at 30?41'44N 120?18'23E and part of the Huzhou administrative district....
, in the district of Huzhou

Huzhou

Huzhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province of China, People's Republic of China. Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzhou to the south, and the provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu to the west and north respectively....
, Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of China of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital....
province.

History

The earliest intact ink brush was found in 1954, in the tomb of a Chu

Chu (state)

Chu was a monarchy in what is now central and southern China during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States Period . Its ruling house had the Chinese surname mi , and clan name xiong , and originally was of the noble rank of Chinese nobility#Princehood and Peerage, roughly comparable to a viscount....
citizen during the Warring States Period

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, covers the period from 476 BCE to the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE....
(475 - 221 BCE

Common Era

Common Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used in the Western world, and also internationally, for numbering the year part of the calendar date....
), located in an archaeological dig site Zuo Gong Shan 15 near Changsha

Changsha

Changsha is the capital city of Hunan, a province of south-central China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River....
. This primitive version of an ink brush had a wooden stalk, and a bamboo tube secures the bundle of hair to the stalk. Legend credits the invention of the ink brush to Qin

Qin Dynasty

The Qin Dynasty was preceded by the feudal Zhou Dynasty and followed by the Han Dynasty in China. The unification of China in 221 BCE under the Qin Shi Huang marked the beginning of Imperial China, a period which lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 CE....
general Meng Tian

Meng Tian

Meng Tian was a general of the Qin Dynasty who distinguished himself against the Xiongnu and in the construction of the Great Wall of China. He descended from a great line of military generals and architects....
. The invention of ink brush resulted in the Lesser Seal Script (Xiaozhuan

Xiaozhuan

Lesser or Small Seal Script , or Hsiao-chuan is associated with the work on Chinese characters compiled by Li Si during the Qin Dynasty under the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang....
), which is elegant and curvy unlike its predecessor the Greater Seal Script (Dazhuan

Seal script

Seal script is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty script , arising in the Warring States of Qin ....
) which is rugged and blocky.

Today, Japanese companies such as Pentel and Sakura manufacture pens with brushes resembling those of a small ink brush as tips. These brush pens work almost identically to small ink brushes, and can be used for most of the same purposes.

Ink brush

History

See also