Akashiya

Founded in 1716, Akashiya Co., Ltd. is Japan's largest manufacturer of writing brushes, for over 300 years they have maintained the traditional skills needed to make this important tool.

書 （SHO, Japanese calligraphy, is the art of black & white. It is the highly developed art of drawing letters with pure black ink on white paper. This unique technique flourished in Eastern Asia, especially in Japan, and has received great attention around the world. The writing brush is the most important tool in Japanese calligraphy.

The company is also famous for their modern calligraphy brushes filled with coloured inks. They allow the artist to compose colourful drawings with the touch of a genuine calligraphy brush, the fusion of two different traditions, black & white calligraphy from Eastern Asia and the colourful arts of the West. The AKASHIYA SAI Water-based Brush Pen won the coveted Stationery of the Year Award in 2007.

Akashiya offer a huge range of high quality calligraphy brushes (fude) and brush pens, watercolour supplies (Gansai paints and brush pens) and ink painting (sumi-e) tools. We have selected a number of key products from their huge range with each of these mediums in mind.

You will find a blog article introducing their range here, an article on their fabulous gansai watercolour paints here and last but not least  an introduction to the art of etegami here. We discovered Akashya through our love for etegami, we hope you will share our passion for this amazing folk art form from Japan.