By Rafe Calder
The brush trade in Kumano began as a way to fill the winter. It outgrew that.
The town
Kumano is a town in Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, on the Kumano River. Wikipedia says it had 23,479 residents in May 2023 and was made a village on 1 April 1889 and a town on 1 October 1918. It says the town is known for brushes called Kumano-fude, and that in 2008 it marked its ninetieth anniversary by announcing a Brush Pen Day on the spring equinox. The prefectural page on traditional crafts gives a different population, about 24,000 residents, and says about 2,500 of them are involved in making brushes.
How it started
Three sources tell the same outline. In the farming off-season, local men went to buy brushes and ink in the Kinki region and sold them along the road home. The prefecture says the road was the Sanyo highway. A trade site says they went as far as what are now Wakayama and Nara Prefectures and bought Nara-made brushes and ink. A retail guide adds that young people from Kumano trained under craftsmen from Arima, in Hyogo, and from the Hiroshima Domain, then brought the methods home.
They do not agree on when. Kogei Japan, a craft-promotion site, says the trade dates to the late Edo period and mentions 1835 and 1846 as years in which founding figures learned brush making. Another trade site says that around 1800 some farmers brought the techniques back, and that the Hiroshima Domain supported local industry. A retail guide says about 180 years of history. We show all three.
Schools and the market
All the sources agree that schooling mattered. Kogei Japan says calligraphy brush production grew with the national education system in the Meiji period (1868 to 1912), and that calligraphy returned to the school curriculum in 1958. A retail guide says Meiji-era schooling raised demand for brushes.
What the numbers say
- Share: Kogei Japan says Kumano accounts for about 80 per cent of domestic brush production. A trade site says Kumano makes 80 per cent of Japan’s domestic brushes, and notes that its summary line says “calligraphy and painting brushes” while the body says only “brushes”. The prefecture says Kumano is the number one brush area in Japan, with no percentage.
- Designation: Kogei Japan, the prefecture and the trade site all say 1975 for the national traditional-craft designation. Kogei Japan adds a collective trademark registered in 2004.
- People: the prefecture says fifteen people are officially designated Kumano-fude Traditional Craftsmen by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.
What the hair is
Kogei Japan lists goat, horse, deer, Japanese raccoon dog, weasel and cat hair. The retail guide and the trade site list five, without cat: goat, horse, deer, raccoon dog and weasel. The guide says goat hair is soft and weasel hair springy, and that one brush often mixes several hairs because elasticity and gathering vary by body part. It gives no properties for the others, so we give none.
Steps, and how many
Here the sources split most sharply.
- A retail guide says the process is “said to involve more than 70 steps”, most still done by hand, in three stages: preliminary work, bench work and finishing. It names hair selection, senmo, and hair blending, kegumi, as the first steps.
- Kogei Japan also cites more than 70 steps in its description, but its own page lists 21 numbered ones.
- A trade site gives no count and lists eight stages.
Across the three, the sequence is recognisable. Hair is sorted and the unwanted hair removed. Ash is used on it, though the sources differ on why: Kogei Japan says rice husk ash removes oil from the hair, while the trade site says ash is rubbed in to improve ink absorption. We cannot choose between them. Hair is mixed, and Kogei Japan says it is mixed with glue, then inserted into a round wooden head, the koma, and shaped to a pointed tip. Better hair is wrapped around that core. Linen thread is wound at the base and a hot iron sets the shape, according to Kogei Japan. The trade site says heat forms the tip, called the hokubi, the hair is glued to the handle, and the maker’s name is carved into the handle. Kogei Japan adds that the tip is not cut straight but is gently shaped in a wooden mould.
The first writing of the year
Wikipedia says kakizome, “first writing”, is the first calligraphy of the new year, traditionally written on 2 January. Today people more often write an auspicious kanji than a poem, and pupils up to senior high school are assigned it as winter-holiday homework. On 5 January several thousand calligraphers gather at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, which the page says the media cover widely. Our reading: if there is a season for thinking about a brush, it is the end of December, with a sheet of paper waiting.
Choosing a brush
The retail guide divides calligraphy brushes, shohitsu, into large, medium and small, and suggests deciding on the use first, then the tip size and shape, fine lines or broad strokes, then the hair, and finally the handle length and weight in the hand. It gives no measurements and no stiffness ratings.
Dates in order
- About 1800 or 1835 to 1846: the trade takes root, according to two different sources.
- 1889: Kumano becomes a village, according to Wikipedia.
- 1958: calligraphy returns to the curriculum, according to Kogei Japan.
- 1975: national traditional-craft designation, according to three sources.
- 2004: collective trademark, according to Kogei Japan.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (two pages); a craft-promotion site, Kogei Japan; the prefecture’s own page; and two commercial sites, a trade and a retail guide. We read no museum page.
What we left out
Care routines, which none of the pages gave for calligraphy, and prices.
Quick answers
What are Kumano brushes? According to Wikipedia, Kumano-fude are brushes made in Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, a town known for brush manufacturing.
When were Kumano brushes made a traditional craft? Kogei Japan, the prefecture and a trade site all say 1975.
When is kakizome? According to Wikipedia, the first calligraphy of the new year is traditionally written on 2 January.
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