Asian Paintings & Scrolls

The scholar’s study, before dawn. Water is dripped onto the stone, the ink stick is ground in slow circles, and the day’s thinking has not yet begun.

Asian paintings and scrolls begin with the tools: Chinese calligraphy brushes, inkstones, brush pots. Brush, ink, paper and inkstone, the wenfang sibao, were the four essentials of the study. Brushes of animal and horse hair were set in bamboo, wood or stone; inkstones were carved from dense stone; brush rests, washers and ink wells came shaped like mountains, leaves and flowers. Calligraphy in China and Japan was once a form of devotional training.

Carved monastery seals with Quan Yin, the Buddha or a poem, Burmese and Tibetan pieces, and a Hausa Qur’anic and fortune teller’s board from Sudan and Nigeria add other scripts. Soapstone, bamboo and worn wood are warm in the hand.

Lay them out and wait for the muse.