Traditional craft
Nara Fude
奈良筆
Calligraphy brushes from Nara, where Japanese brush making is said to have begun with the monk Kukai some 1,200 years ago.
Key facts
- Officially recognised
- 14 October 1977
- Type
- Brushes, ink and inkstones
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 奈良筆
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 奈良市、大和郡山市
A dozen kinds of hair
Nara brushes blend more than a dozen kinds of hair, including sheep, horse, deer, tanuki, weasel, marten, rabbit and squirrel, combining their different spring, strength and length. Japanese brushes often mix around ten hairs, where many Chinese brushes use two or three. It is made in Nara and Yamatokoriyama in Nara.
From hair to handle
- Hair is sorted for each brush and rubbed with ash.
- It is soaked, shaped and blended, a core is formed and outer hair is wrapped around it.
- When dry, the base is tied with hemp thread and seared to set the tip.
- The tip is glued into the handle and the maker's name is carved.
Kukai's gift
Brush making in Nara is said to have begun about 1,200 years ago, when the monk Kukai mastered the craft in Tang China and taught it on his return to a man of Yamato named Kiyokawa. This is said to be the start of brush making in Japan. From the Meiji era, with the school system, Nara brushes came into use all over the country.
Good to know
- Nara's temples and a Nara brush make a natural pairing for calligraphy lovers.
- Ask what hairs are in a brush: each blend writes differently.
Questions travellers ask
Who brought brush making to Japan?
The monk Kukai, said to have taught it in Yamato about 1,200 years ago.
How many kinds of hair are used?
More than a dozen, often around ten in a single brush.
Where it comes from
More crafts from the same area
Local foods from the same area
Heritage stories from the same area
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Kamenose: crossing the landslide heart of the Tatsuta Kodo
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Michinoku gold: where Japan's gold story began
- Mount Takao and Hachioji, the city of silk
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.