Shigoku takes its name from two characters — Shi (四), four, and Goku (獄), world — and carries four carved designs representing the four worlds of Buddhist cosmology, cast from inkstick moulds dating back to Japan's Edo period, sometime between the 1600s and the mid-1800s.
It's a bluish-black sumi inkstick, made from the smoke of the finest pine bark refined into ultra-fine particles, and finished with gold leaf.
Kobaien uses gold leaf for three reasons: beauty, preservation — gold doesn't corrode, so it helps keep the ink's quality intact over the years — and practicality, since gold particles are said to help calligraphers draw smoother, softer lines, especially suited to kuzushiji, Japan's flowing cursive script.
At 37mm wide, 68mm long, 15mm thick, and 40 grams, it's compact enough to sit easily on a desk or in a travel case, while still carrying centuries of design history in its carved surface.
For anyone drawn to writing or painting with a shape passed down largely unchanged since the Edo period, Shigoku offers something rarer than color alone: a small piece of that history, ready to be ground and used.
Width:37 mm Length:68mm Thickness:15mm Weight:40gram
