It's July, and Bazaar season is in full swing, this weekend at the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church in Union City. While my wife brought home a load of plants, I bid on a Sumitsubo set: a traditional Japanese carpenter's line with an ink stone and brush.

Besides wanting to try to recover my calligraphy skills, I'm also fascinated by the mythology around ink stones. In addition to being artworks on their own, Chinese artisans considered the ink stone the most important physical element of penmanship, and Japanese mythology holds that an ink stone that is used to copy the same story over and over will start to take on aspects of the story.

#JapaneseAmerican #Obon #Bazaar #Inkstone (suggestions for better hashtags welcome)

New items for sale, see them on my Insta! I'll be taking these along to #FantasyFest!

#homemade #diy #smallbusiness #kawaii #cutegirl #inkstone #smallartist #sword #resin

https://www.instagram.com/p/CrVuDxRMF_P/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

A tray and cover for an ink stone, shaped like a turtle.
The tray held a block of dry ink that would then be ground and mixed with water to be used in calligraphy.

6th-7th century. #SuiDynasty or #TangDynasty.

#turtles #inkstone #MetMuseum