Questions and Answers about brushes

If you leave the dried bristles without proper care, they will be eaten by bugs. We have seen several times that former painters' brushes and Hake have been eaten and damaged by bugs due to improper preservation. Please keep it in a closed container with some insecticide if you don't use for a long time. We reccommend that the celluloid cap is removed. You can use regular insecticide. Do not use a celluloid cap because it may be deformed by the insecticide.

We think that there are two reasons. One is an issue caused by unsuitable care. If you put on the celluloid cap after using the brush, or put the brush in a brush box while still wet, moisuture permiates into the heel of the bristle gradually, causing the thread to loosen and finally resulting in loss of hair from the heel of the bristle. The same is true for Hake. Most of these issues can be prevented with proper care. This is a manufacture's problem and is seen in cheap paint brushes. If you have any problem with our brushes or Hake, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will fix it.

It is difficult to define a good brush. It is not always correct that expensive brush is good. For example, even the same kind of brushes, Sokuyo look the same, but the materials used and tailoring of the brush differ greatly depending on the manufacturer. A method to use in order to decide good or bad, is to judge the shape of the brush stains on wrapped hair around the core as an indication of quality. If the hair has gathered in a single place and has a distorted shape, a longer hair on the tip, or stains of the surface, you can`t expect a quality brush. The most important thing is to find auitable a suitable brush for your purpose. When you want a resilient Senbyo-fude, Tennen-Sokumyo ( Softer and good water content ablility) is not suitable for the usage. When you want Tenbyo, sharp and long bristle Menso is too difficult to use. We created this site wirh the hope that the characteristics of each brush can be conveyed as much as possible. Please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail if you have any questions.

Menso-fude and Makie-fude are suitable to draw thin lines. There are suitable to draw thin lines. There are various thin lines you can draw, such as special small-sized goat Menso, koiinsku thin Senbyo for drawing a little longer modulated lines, Tokujyu or Kochou fo continuous lines, or long bristle white weasel Menso and specially- made Makie-fude for harder thin lines. Menso-fude and Makie-fude are not suitable for drawing longer thin lines. If you draw longer lines like Kotsubyo, you may choose a very sharp conical-shaped senbyo-fude Kai, Ousyu, Hakugou, if you can control the brush.

As described in the manufacturing process on this site, it takes a very long time to make a brush. A few months are needed to make high quality brushes. We produce many kinds of brushes and continue the long process at the same time. We can make make 300 brushes a day, but sometimes we continue preparatory work for the whole week.

Brushes and hake tend to repel paint colors and to weakedn water content capacity. Please use different brushes and hake for Dosa and painting.

Brushes and hake are expendable. As you paint, the paper is like as sandpaper, the tip of the bristle becomes worn away and becomes shorter. A good quality brush has another usage, for example, you can utilize Senbyo-fude like Ousyu for the early stage for Senbyo-fude for painting details . "Choryi is used Senbyo and Tukitate on the early stage, then Saishiki when it is worn, then Sumitori, finally you can use it as Sunako-fude by cutting the tip," said the grandfather Miyauti Tokuou. Please understand the characteristics of these brushes, then you will find other usages by taking proper care.

The Japanese paintbrush is well suited for watercolors, and acrylic paints. You can use all kinds of Japanese-style brushes. Menso-fude, used for oil paintings, is makde utilizing mainly weasel, kolinsky, and raccoon dog. Please check our brush list of "watercolors and acrylic paints" and " Oil paints"