If you were a Chinese scholar in the middle of the 18th Century – or even the 19th Century – you would have a table, and on it you would have a number of key things: brushes for calligraphy ...

An curved arrow pointing right. A handmade calligraphy brush, custom made for a master calligrapher, can cost over $1,000. At Hata Bunshindou each brush tip is made by a single artisan.

What all such brushes have in common, however, is their flexibility. It is this feature more than any other that allows the calligraphic line to be so fluid and expressive. The ink employed in ...