Toyohashi brushes

Toyohashi brushes are rooted in the eastern Aichi production areas of Toyohashi, Toyokawa, Gamagori, Shinshiro, and nearby communities. Their beginning is traced to 1804, when Suzuki Jinzaemon of Kyoto was invited by the Yoshida domain to make brushes. Brush making later spread as side work among lower-ranking samurai, helped by access to animal hair such as raccoon dog and weasel for brush tips. Those anchors keep the brush close to named places and materials: Toyohashi under the Yoshida domain, side work by lower-ranking samurai, and animal hair used for a writing tip.

A Toyohashi brush begins as a set of materials with different roles. The tip may use goat, horse, raccoon dog, weasel, deer, cat, flying squirrel, squirrel, or marten hair, or comparable animal hair; the shaft is bamboo or wood. During sorting, raw hair is separated by length, tip condition, and intended use, then boiled or passed through hot water, dried, and combed with a metal comb to remove extra downy hair. The eventual line starts with this handling of hair, shaft, and intended use.

The central Toyohashi brush process is water-based nerimaze. Makers mix three positions in the brush tip: inochige, the very front hair; nodoge, the hair just below the tip; and koshige, the resilient hair at the base. Water helps distribute those hairs evenly through the tip. This step is tied to good ink holding, slow ink release, and an easier writing feel, so the brush is understood through the movement of ink as well as through its visible shape.

The workflow runs through about 36 to 40 steps. Its main movement includes sorting, hair rubbing, combing, cutting, nerimaze, core forming, outer-hair wrapping, finishing, and inscription. In hair rubbing, rice-husk ash is applied to remove animal fat from the raw hair, and the hair is rubbed firmly while wrapped in deer hide to improve ink absorption. Cutting uses a dividing board and scissors; finishing inserts the tip into a bamboo shaft, shapes it with paste and thread, and ends with a name or maker inscription on the shaft.

Toyohashi brush uses include calligraphy brushes, menso brushes, and Japanese-painting brushes. Sakakibara Shinobu gives one named maker’s view: he entered apprenticeship at sixteen, and his work is tied to calligraphers’ requests for softness, firmness, ink amount, and line effect. Materials are chosen to match those requests; hand pressure, ink behavior, and the desired line become part of the making decision.

The same named maker connects writing brushes and painting brushes closely, noting that an older calligraphy brush can be trimmed for water-ink painting. Menso brushes and Japanese-painting brushes are also named among the main product types. In use, the slow movement of ink from the tip turns earlier material work into pressure, pace, and line.