Ogatsu Suzuri

Teeth in the stone

The key to an inkstone is its hobo, tiny teeth in the surface that grind the ink stick. Ogatsu stone's hobo has just the right balance of coarse and fine, hard and soft. The stone is black or dark indigo with a rich sheen and smooth surface, and it comes from strata over 250 million years old. It is made in Ishinomaki and Sendai in Miyagi.

Split, carved, matched

• Stone is chosen for balanced teeth, low water absorption and a beautiful surface that will not change over time.
• Each inkstone is carved by hand, by methods some 600 years old.
• Ogatsu stone splits cleanly in one direction, so for a lidded inkstone the stone is split in two: one half is carved as the inkstone and the other becomes its lid.
• The natural split edges fit together perfectly, a pairing found nowhere else in the world.

A gift for Date Masamune

Ogatsu inkstones are said to date to the early Muromachi period. In the early Edo period, two inkstones presented to Date Masamune when he came deer hunting on the Oshika Peninsula won his praise and a reward. His successor Date Tadamune took inkstone makers into domain service and closed the stone mountain to ordinary people.