Soutai inkstick ( Vivid and beautiful bluish black, Genuine Indigo, 蒼苔 青墨 )

Soutai — "pale moss" — is bound like a small Japanese book rather than shaped like a stick, and its colour lives up to the name: genuine indigo worked into Kobaien's finest oil-smoke soot, giving a bluish black vivid enough for both calligraphy and painting.

One customer described the scent alone as enough to settle the mind before a single stroke — she bought a set for her students, who loved it just as much.

Another called it an absolute joy to grind, prizing the balance of pigment to glue and the fragrance that rises as the stick wears down.

A blue-toned black is not always easy to trust on paper; Soutai is the kind that makes you want to keep testing it, shade by shade.

The meaning of the product name is as follows: 

蒼 ( sou : pale blue )

苔 ( tai : moss )

Seiboku series are made from Kobaien’s finest oil smoke; most suitable for blue ink.