Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2012 23:10:59 GMT -5
During my recent sojourn in the West, I picked up one of these in an antique store, and showing it round demonstrated that this object is quite mysterious to some. Even one of the clerks in the store didn't know what it is.
It's called a yatate. This literally means "arrow stand", and the name is something of a historical artifact. Officers apparently used to carry a suzuri ink stone in their quiver for making ink in the field. Even after this method was replaced, the first part of "yatate no suzuri" stuck.
Anyway, the round part is an ink well, and the tube part is a brush case. Here's a close-up with the lid open.
You put an ink-soaked wad of cotton or silk in the well, and when you press the brush tip into the cotton it gets loaded with ink. Slide the brush into the tube, and the lid seals tightly to keep everything from drying out.
This particular one is smallish (the tube is about 6 inches (5 sun, actually) long), and made of copper with a brass ruler on top of the tube. It is almost certainly fairly modern manufacture (my guess is 1920 +/- 15 years) and the design is actually post-SCA period. Yatate do go back to the Kamakura period, though. The earliest ones resemble a folded fan.
References:
www.stutler.cc/pens/yatate/index.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatate
www.japaneseyatate.com/
It's called a yatate. This literally means "arrow stand", and the name is something of a historical artifact. Officers apparently used to carry a suzuri ink stone in their quiver for making ink in the field. Even after this method was replaced, the first part of "yatate no suzuri" stuck.
Anyway, the round part is an ink well, and the tube part is a brush case. Here's a close-up with the lid open.
You put an ink-soaked wad of cotton or silk in the well, and when you press the brush tip into the cotton it gets loaded with ink. Slide the brush into the tube, and the lid seals tightly to keep everything from drying out.
This particular one is smallish (the tube is about 6 inches (5 sun, actually) long), and made of copper with a brass ruler on top of the tube. It is almost certainly fairly modern manufacture (my guess is 1920 +/- 15 years) and the design is actually post-SCA period. Yatate do go back to the Kamakura period, though. The earliest ones resemble a folded fan.
References:
www.stutler.cc/pens/yatate/index.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatate
www.japaneseyatate.com/
