In the fourth or fifth century, Buddhist monks, traders, government officials and immigrants brought Chinese writing to Japan (via the Korean Peninsula), which continued to spread with Buddhism in the sixth century. “Fude” roughly translates to “brush,” but Tanaka uses the word only for the style of calligraphy and ink-painting brushes she makes in a tradition with roughly 1,300 years of history in Nara, the landlocked prefecture below Kyoto.

Tanaka is one of seven remaining masters of crafting Nara fude. With tools so old they are no longer in production, it’s the workshop of a shokunin (master craftsperson), but as cozy as an auntie’s living room. Inside, brushes in every size - some fine enough to paint a doll’s eyelashes, others broad enough to draw characters as tall as the person writing them - line the walls. I follow a stone path down the flower-lined alleyway and duck under a mustard-colored noren curtain and into her tiny showroom.

Among the low, tile-roofed wooden houses of the historic Nara-machi neighborhood of the city of Nara, a calligraphy brush as big as a broom marks the gate to Chiyomi Tanaka’s shop.