Fotograf Magazine

“The medium used by Japanese painters is the monochrome ink sumi, which is applied with a soft, pointed brush, and only sometimes enhanced with natural pigments, or with silver, gold, mica, black lacquer, and the white powder gofun. The ink is traditionally made by combining animal horn glue with soot or ashes from burnt down reed vegetation (juncus communis and sessamen orientalis). It is kept in its solid state, often in the form of a stick or disk decorated with a relief design. The painter, using a flat grinding stone, known as a suzuri (or ken in Chinese), mixes the ink with the appropriate amount of water to achieve the desired thickness and shade of black or grey.”