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

Ochimatsu — おちまつ, "fallen pine" — is soot gathered not from a living tree, but from pine wood that has already died and fallen, or been felled: an old method passed down from China, in which resin-rich wood is burned indoors and the soot collecting on walls and ceiling is harvested as ink's raw material.

As oil-soot ink has become the modern standard and good pine has grown scarcer, true pine-soot ink like this has quietly become a rare, valuable material. Its uneven soot particles give the ink a calm, elegant bluish tint unlike anything oil-smoke can produce.

One customer called it simply wonderful, with fast shipping and excellent communication from Ichi throughout.