This is a typical example of the brush commonly known as a mountain horse hair brush. It is composed of hairs from the tail and mane of a horse, combined with wild boar hairs.
This brush is in the mid-range for resiliency (or “spring”) in the bristles. The bristles of this example are made of weasel hair, but squirrel and sable hair are also used for this type of brush.
This brush is made from soft sheep or rabbit hair. Depending upon how the brush will be used, even a sheep hair brush may include the coarse white hair of a horse in the center.
This brush is used for calligraphy or painting. Weasel hair is used for the bristles, but the very center contains whiskers of small mammals. When you paint bamboo leaves, for example, the whiskers help to bring the bristles back to a point to make the leaf tip.
Brushes are sold with the bristles starched together. This is the same brush shown in the photo at left, now viewed after the bristles have been loosened.
This brush is similar to a mountain horse hair brush, but its bristles are of raccoon hair.
The same raccoon-hair brush seen at above right, after the bristles have been loosened.
This brush is not a mountain horse hair brush after all: horse hair is used only on the very outer skirt, and the inside of the brush is made up of plant fibers. The metal comb shown here is made especially for the care of brushes.
It is difficult to assess the quality of brushes that are constructed of an assortment of hairs and that also vary in thickness simply by looking at the finished product. Quality brushes usually use natural hair with natural point. Some manufacturers will use a technique that abrades the cut hair to a point like natural hairs. Some manufacturers may just use longer hairs cut short in a blunt cut in the center. If the cut hair is not properly abraded to a point like a natural strand is, the brush will not come to a point when used.
During my study trip to China, I stopped at a brush specialist’s shop. I picked out a few brushes and then the shopkeeper brought out another brush, suggesting that it was an inexpensive but good quality brush. I told him that if it was indeed a good brush and inexpensive, then it would be ideal for my classes so I would likely plan to buy a quantity of them. I then added that I would pay for the one brush, but first wished to open it up to see the hairs inside. The shopkeeper whisked the brush away, and gave me another brush which was several times more expensive. The first brush must have been mass-produced with cut hairs in the center which he did not wish to expose.
In a quality brush specialist’s shop, within each category of brushes on display, one brush is already loosened so you can see the composition and hair combination of the bristles. Shopkeepers may also suggest that you test the brush you’re considering; this may be done by using water, which turns black on a chemically treated gray paper. This will help you determine which brush you should purchase. Quality brushes are expensive, often exceeding more than several hundred dollars, but the investment is well worth it and provides use and enjoyment for many years to come.
For a practitioner of sumi-e, having a few quality brushes should be sufficient. Among them should be a large and a small choryu brush; a large and a small mountain horse hair brush; a wide flat brush, called a hake; and/or a renpitsu brush (these consist of small brushes lined up and joined together to make a wide flat brush). Artists have a tendency, when traveling, to automatically stop into art supply stores and often they end up buying brushes as souvenirs. These brushes, when used, can give unexpected pleasure, but they may also end up simply overfilling your drawers.
Brushes are given various names by the companies that produce them or the specialty shops that sell them. There are some brushes that carry the same name consistently regardless of the company which produces or sells them, whether in China or Japan. Choryu, the long “flowing” brush, is one example. This brush is made for sumi-e artists. If you possess only one brush, this is the brush to have whether you are a beginner or a professional sumi-e artist. The outer skirt of the choryu brush is sheep hair, wrapped around coarser hairs inside. By opening up the brush, you can see that the inside hairs of the bristle are composed of very coarse hair, like whiskers, along with other types hairs ranging from medium hard to medium soft, carefully placed to give greater flexibility so that the brush can also be used for painting bamboo or pampas grass leaves. Each time you complete the painting of a leaf, the tip of the bristle returns to a straight point.
White sheep hairs form the outer layer of the choryu brush.
The choryu brush with its bristles tied open to reveal the several types of hairs that compose its center.
The flexibility and resilience of the choryu brush is important. Brushes constructed solely of sheep hairs will not spring back so are difficult to use sideways, but when the choryu brush is used sideways, the bristles will not spread and will be easier to manipulate. By holding the brush at the perpendicular, either very thin or very wide lines can be drawn. Choryu means “long flowing stream,” and perhaps the name was chosen because once ink is applied, long lines can be painted with this brush.
The mountain horse hair brush is made of very coarse hairs. Originally these hairs came from a type of Asian deer, but today the mountain horse hair brush is composed of horse hair combined with bear or other coarse bristles. It is used mainly for the dry brush techniques (see page 57); its coarse bristles give lines unique qualities, and allow you to create multiple line types with one continous stroke of the brush.
Menso brushes come in a variety of sizes to meet special needs. A small menso brush is ideal for painting human hair, strand by strand, or eyebrows one hair by one. The slimmest of these brushes is composed of only five or six whiskers. The eyebrows of the Noh masks used in Japanese drama and also those of Japanese dolls are painted on with this type of brush. Because these brushes are extremely slim, the slender “head” is first inserted into a small bamboo tube, stabilized and then set in the second handle. It looks, in fact, like a brush with a double handle.
BRUSH TYPES
Brush #1 is for formal to semi-formal calligraphy; however, in hair composition, it is primarily coarse, so I often use it as a large mountain horse hair