By: Hana Hoffman, Peak Associate

This past month, I got to learn about a type of art that uses just black ink, water, and a single brush size. It’s a traditional Japanese form of art called sumi-e. “Sumi” means “black ink,” and “e” means “painting.” 

Thanks to SFU Study Abroad, I am currently spending my fall semester at Meiji Gakuin University in Japan, where I’ve had the opportunity to get hands-on experience trying out this delicate kind of art. As I was scrolling through the course list at this institution, I found a Japanese culture class which focuses purely on how to paint sumi-e. I figured it would be a good contrast from the usual courses involving lectures, reading, and writing.

Setting up the ink and table goes as so. We start by grinding a small black rock the size of a thumb — which produces ink when we rub it with a bit of water — against a type of rock that acts as a shallow container for our ink. In this particular class, we continue this grinding motion for 5–10 minutes, but our teacher said she grinds it for 30 minutes to get the ink very dark (if she is going to paint an important piece of artwork). This ink preparation process is a period of relaxation before the painting starts. After that, we use three small bowls; one to mix ink with a bit of water for a medium shade of ink, one for a light shade of ink, and an extra one for removing excess liquid from the brush when needed. We also have a special towel for wiping water and ink off the brush. 

When painting, we often create a gradient on the paintbrush to create shades. This is done by dipping the full bristles of the brush in the light shade of ink, dipping half of it into the medium shade, then dipping the tip into the pure ink. Additionally, we dry the brush, shape it to be pointy, and put dark ink on the tip to paint solid, thin lines. So far, we’ve practised a few brush strokes, learned how to paint bamboo, and tried painting cosmos flowers using real-life photos as reference. Despite not having much of an artistic background prior to taking the course, my sumi-e paintings look nicer than I expected!

Recently, the teacher organised a class field trip to an art museum and took us around the sumi-e section to gain inspiration for our final project. The highlight of this trip was when my friend and I were looking at a stunning painting of a polar bear on a glacier, and when we asked the teacher what painting techniques might’ve been used, she said she could answer any questions about it because it was her own award-winning painting! My classmates and I were amazed by how creative the paintings were. Some of the themes were nature, buildings, animals, and people, all painted with varying strokes of the soft brush. Here, I realised there are no limits in art, and that people can use this delicately simple art form to paint anything on their mind.