sumi setup

This is my basic setup for sumi-e painting.

As the paper is highly absorbent one works on a piece of felt that leeches away excess water.

There are many sizes and types of fude (brushes) but for one painting I can usually get by using one, two or, at the most, three brushes.

The suzuri (ink grinding stone) is usually carved from natural stone.

The sumi (ink stick) is made from a combination of soot and animal glue.

The ceramic dish, kikuzara (chrysanthemum shaped), is used to mix shades pf gray from the freshly ground black ink.

The orange toweling rags are to pat and dry the fude.

Sitting on the top of the painting on the felt is the bunchin, a weight to hold the paper in place.

A container to hold water, of course.

Last but not least is the bamboo thingy holding the sumi, ink stick stub, sitting on the suzuri. I have no idea what it's called in Japanese (the Japanese that I've asked about it didn't even know such a tool existed, even though I bought it there!), but it's designed to and works great to hold stubs of your sumi for grinding when they become too short to hold in your hand.