International tourists give calligraphy a try using Nara oil-soot ink at Kofuku-ji temple

Kinkoen, a sumi ink workshop established about 150 years ago in Nara city, held a special event to present Nara sumi (oil-soot ink of Nara) at a resting area located in front of Kofuku-ji temple’s Nan’en-do hall — a designated important cultural property of Japan — in September 2024.

The making of Nara sumi — a government-designated traditional craft of Japan — is said to have started during the medieval Muromachi period (14th-16th century) at a priest’s residence on Kofuku-ji grounds called Nitaibo, where soot was collected from light-offerings.

At the event, Atsushi Nagano, 47, the seventh-generation ink craftsman of Kinkoen, demonstrated the shaping of a traditional Japanese inkstick by inserting raw sumi (mixture of soot, nikawa glue and fragrance) into a wooden mold. Tourists from the United States, Mexico and China then used the end product, which is Nara sumi, to write “Nara” and “deer” in Japanese characters with their ink brush.

An Italin tourist, 37, who participated in the event, said, “Handling the ink brush wasn’t easy, but a lot of fun.”

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun and other sources)

Learn more about Kofuku-ji:

Special Trip to Experience Traditional Japanese
Culture and History in the Ancient Capital of Nara

(AD sponsored by the Japan Arts Council and the Agency
for Cultural Affairs posted on The Japan News website)

Find cultural tours in Nara including Kofuku-ji:

Sharing Kyoto