Hi Everyone,
It was a three day weekend, and people had three-day off till Monday.
Kumano had a brush festival, not the same as usual. The festival was online.
Maybe some of you bought brushes online.
I was asked by a client of mine why this brush in the picture was so expensive.
It was 400,000 yen or 4000 USD.
It is made with a Yakusugi handle and hair of horse (or deer they say) .
The hair cannot be imported now due to the restriction by the Washington Treaty.
Maybe that is one reason, but doesn’t explain why it is 4000USD …..
So I googled it.
The company is called Bunkodo, which seems to focus more on calligraphy brushes, and sells makeup brushes made by another Kumano brush company.
Bunkodo has a history of more than 100 years.
This is a picture around 1910, so right before the World War I. They were making brushes in the picture.
The era is called ‘Meiji,’ after the Tokugawa era, Samurai.
By the way, I had a colleague whose name was ‘Tokugawa.’
I asked Tokugawa-san, ‘Is your ancestor a sumurai shogun?’
He said he chose Tokugawa. Well, I cannot choose it….
Then, he explained.
He was a Malaysian and became a Japanese citizen.
And he said that the Tokugawa name was ‘cool.’ And he chose it.
I was not able to recognize him as non- Japanese because his Japanese was impeccable.
Back to brushes,
I will do more research and write about Kumano.
Thank you for reading!
Toshiya
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