Ochimatsu Shouenboku inkstick ( Bluish ink, Pine smoke, おちまつ松煙墨 )

"Ochimatsu" refers to soot made from pine wood that has already died and fallen — or been felled — rather than from a living tree.

It follows an old method passed down from China: resin-rich wood is burned indoors, and the soot that collects on the walls and ceiling is gathered as the raw material for ink.

Today, oil-soot ink (made from soot burned from rapeseed oil and similar sources) has become the mainstream method of making ink, and as good-quality pine has grown scarcer, pine-soot ink of this kind is now treated as a rare, valuable material.

It is characterized by a calm and elegant bluish tint produced by the quality uneven particles of soot.