28 Sept 2014

MINGEI - hake brush

LINK
http://omamorifromjapan.blogspot.jp/2014/09/hake-brush.html

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hake 刷毛 craftsmen's brush, brushes

. fude 筆 writing brush .

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- - - - - Different types of brushes

when manufacturing paper hanger brushes (kyooji hake 経師刷毛)
woodblock printing brushes (mokuhan hake 木版刷毛)
. mayuhaki まゆはき eyebrow brush .
doll brushes (ningyoo hake 人形刷毛)
cosmetic brushes (applying white) (oshiroi hake, o-shiroi hake 白粉刷毛)
dye brushes (senshoku hake 染色刷毛 )
paint brushes (tosoo hake 塗装刷毛)



hake 刷毛(はけ) 刷子 - burashi ブラシ brush

塗装用具 - brushes for painting and coating
清掃用具 - brushes for cleaning the house
調理器具 - brushes for cooking

釉はがし刷毛 for potters
糊刷毛
nade hake 撫で刷毛

ニス刷毛
目地刷毛
ダメ込み
スミ切り
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- ABC - List of brushes from the Prefectures

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. . . . . . . . . . Tokyo / Edo


Edo Hake 江戸刷毛 Edo Brushes

Traditional Technologies and Techniques
1- For lacquer brushes (Urushi Hake うるし刷毛), the hair comprising the brush head is stiffened using a starch paste. The brush head is then mounted and affixed to the brush block.
2- The following techniques are employed when manufacturing paper hanger brushes (Kyoji Hake 経師刷毛), dye brushes (Senshoku Hake 染色刷毛 ), doll brushes (Ningyo Hake 人形刷毛), woodblock printing brushes (Mokuhan Hake 木版刷毛), paint brushes (Toso Hake 塗装刷毛) and the cosmetic brushes (Oshiroi Hake 白粉刷毛) used to apply white face powder:

① For brushes whose brush head is comprised of hair from different sources, the different hair types 混毛 are mixed equally using a steel comb.
② Rice husk ash 籾穀灰is used, and animal hair is ironed and softened in order to eliminate grease from the hair.
③ Suretori スレトリ is the process of spreading out and sorting the hair; broken and irregular strands are removed using a small knife.
④ Binding とじ involves hair being placed in a device called a Shimegi 締木(comprised of wooden boards), or the use of something similar. Silk thread or wire 絹糸又は針金 is used for binding bundles of hair.



Traditionally Used Raw Materials
As brush materials, human hair, animal hair, as well as plant fibers such as Tsugu and hemp palm are all used. Cypress wood, bamboo and similar materials are used to make brush handles.
人毛、獣毛、ツグ又はシュロを用いる。柄に使用する素材は、ヒノキ、タケ

History and Characteristics
As painting tools, brushes have been made in Japan since long ago. Within literary sources, the oldest reference made to the use of brushes comes from the Heian Period (approx. 794 - 1185). It discusses using millet feathers as rudimentary brushes to apply lacquer. The use of hemp palm hair in a similar role is also cited.

In a book called "Bankin-sugiwai-bukuro" 万金産業袋 (which might be described as a "guide to contemporary products") that was published during the mid-Edo Period in the 17th year of the Kyoho Era (1732), there is a map featuring a number of brush varieties then in use. Among these, the "Edo Hake" is listed.

In modern times, there are seven brush types designated as "Edo Hake" (Edo Brushes). These are paper hanger brushes (Kyoji Hake), dye brushes (Senshoku Hake), doll brushes (Ningyo Hake), woodblock printing brushes (Mokuhan Hake), paint brushes (Toso Hake) and cosmetic brushes (Oshiroi Hake).

The tip of a brush represents its most important feature. Because materials that "don't allow for uneven coating in brush strokes" and those "with stiffness" are the best, in addition to deciding on which materials to use when manufacturing brushes, the rigorous attention to duty of the brush craftsman is also important.

Modern brushes use human hair and animal hair such as horse, deer and goat, etc. They also use plant fibers such as hemp palm. With respect to hair strands that are curly or contain grease, such factors can impact craftsmen and their ability to carry out detailed work when brush making. Thus, an important part of the manufacturing process is dedicated to both organizing the tips of the hair, and correcting curliness and eliminating grease from among the hair strands.

Accordingly, the majority of time spent making brushes is expended on such activities.

Furthermore, when the Golden Hall of Chuson-ji Temple (built in 1124) in Hiraizumi Town, Iwate Prefecture was dismantled for repair in 1955, a very ancient and rare lacquer brush measuring 20.5 cm long with a thickness of 1.05 cm was discovered.

Tokyo Brush Manufacturing Association
- source : www.sangyo-rodo.metro.tokyo.jp


. Traditional Crafts of Edo / Tokyo .

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- quote
Japanese sumi brushes (see Figure 7).
Thse come in many styles and sizes.


7. Japanese brushes (left to right):
yoju hake, bamboo hake, gyokuran sumi brush, sansui koraku sumi brush

The flat hake brushes are used dry (without any water or paint in them) to gently stroke and coax the distribution of paint or water in wash areas after the wash solution has been applied with another (wash) brush. Some are designed as individual tufts set in a row of bamboo stalks (pictured at right); others are made as a single row of hairs set in a thin, flat wooden handle. They are quite limp when wet, and shed hairs as relentlessly as a sick dog, which makes them nearly worthless as direct painting tools. When the hairs are wet they also straggle across a wash, leaving unsightly marks. I dislike these brushes and only use them to sweep lint and erasure crumbs from a paper surface. Sized in inches.
- source : www.handprint.com


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桜井ブラシ店 Sakurai Brush Shop - Ginza

The essay below was written in 1984, but the store does not exist any more today (around 2014).

- quote
THE PATIENT ART OF MAKING BRUSHES
Right smack in the middle of the Ginza, ...
there is an undecorated show window - by its very incongruity with its surroundings - attracts the pedestrian to a sparse arrangement of brushes on shelves. Peering beyond them into the recesses of the sparely furnished modern showroom, he sees scrub brushes, body brushes, nailbrushes, hairbrushes, shoe brushes, laundry brushes, shaving brushes, hand brushes. But the most intriguing are the flat Japanese brushes (hake, pronounced HAH-kay) of unfinished wood set with black, brown or white hair, straight handled and bent, in all sizes.

Sakurai Brushes has been manufacturing and selling on this very spot since 1868. Although traditional Japanese brushes are its main product, their history at Sakurai is tied up with the great influx of Western technology that followed Commodore Perry's breach of Tokyo Bay 15 years earlier. The shop's business developed with the growth of the railroads in Japan. For over a century, Sakurai has made brushes for painting railway carriages - coarse brushes for the undercarriage as well as others in varying degrees of fineness for the sleek enameled interiors and exteriors of the cars. Sakurai manufactures other types of hake as well: brushes with an elbow angle in the handle for Nihonga (a traditional style of painting with water-based pigments), wide industrial brushes used in making sandpaper (for spreading the glue), steel brushes for removing rust. But even today, the railroads, both national and private, are still its biggest customers. So, while Japan stands at the leading edge of technology, paradoxically it continues to employ skilled craftsmen with hand- made tools for jobs that, in the West, have long been done by machines.

Goto Hiroshi, owner of Sakurai, says that only the hake are made on the premises. A Japanese-speaking visitor expresses interest in seeing how they are made. Mr. Goto then leads her and a companion up a dark staircase past two floors of stock and materials until they finally emerge into sunlight on the roof of the building. A small shack, a little like a lean-to, sits in the middle of the roof. A lone man makes hake at a workbench on the tatami-floored work area inside. Here, with one other highly skilled artisan, he practices his craft of 50 years. Measuring out the hair for a single brush, he combs it so that the strands lie straight and parallel, then forms them into a tight bundle and fits them into the divided handle (these come ready-made from a small factory). The second man, who has come in while they are talking, binds the whole thing with copper wire and bands of glossy red cherry bark. These particular bent- handled brushes sell for about $10. On his own, one man would be able to produce about 10 brushes in one day.

The price of hake is determined primarily by the type and quality of the hair used. Black hake, suitable for oil-base paint, are made from horsehair. The cheapest are filled with hair taken from the mane and cut into appropriate lengths.

Finer quality brushes used for traditional painting are made from horsetail hairs with the natural hair ends intact, a characteristic of better hake in general. Even the horse's belly is not spared, furnishing the hair for soft brown brushes with the look and feel of sable (but less springy), suitable for very thin paint and varnish ($2.80). White goat hair brushes for lacquer and varnish range from about $6 for one used to spread gold dust (often the background of Nihonga screens) to about $52 for an eight- inch-broad giant.

Sakurai has been manufacturing Western- style brushes only since the end of the war, employing artisans in other parts of Tokyo as the company still does today. In handmade brushes, each tuft is individually tied and inserted hole by hole into the magnolia wood back. The finer brushes are made of black horsehair and white or brown sisal-like vegetable fibers. Higher prices generally indicate hand workmanship: heart-shaped bath brushes are about $10; varnished shoe brushes with black or brown hair bristles (so one can keep separate brushes for shoes of different colors), $10; a small, square body or bath brush for travel, $6, and a hand laundry brush, about $1. Although they are not made by Sakurai, the tanuki badger shaving brushes set in water buffalo horn handles imported from China are a great bargain at $12. Handsome mahogany- and ebony-backed natural bristle hairbrushes are Japanese- made, but not by Sakurai.

Mr. Goto, who belongs to the third generation of Sakurai proprietors, is justly proud of his business, but his son has no interest in continuing it. He feels that manufacturing brushes by hand in a small building is a business that has no place in contemporary downtown Tokyo. Not only is the Ginza property worth a fortune, but skilled artisans willing to put a lifetime into their modest craft will soon be a fondly remembered part of the city's past. Visit the shop while you can.
- source : AMANDA MAYER STINCHECUM, 1984

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白梅に吊して五倍子の刷毛を干す
hakubai ni tsurushite gobaishi no hake o hosu

from the white plum tree
I hang the sumac-wood brush
to dry


Ameyama Kan 飴山實

gobaishi, fushi 五倍子 ふし
Rhus chinensis, Chinese sumac or nutgall tree

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