Sunshinsenko inkstick ( Bluish black, Pine smoke, 寸心千古 松園墨 )

Sunshinsenko takes its name from a line of the Tang poet Du Fu  ( 杜甫 ) — "a small heart, a thousand ages" — and pine-soot ink earns that name honestly: it is said the years themselves deepen its character, the black turning steadily bluer the longer it waits.

Ground dark, it gives a bright, full black; ground light, that same ink resolves into a soft, mysterious blue-grey the finer oil-smoke inks rarely show.

One painter called it a pleasure to use — rich black with almost no effort on a good stone, a wonderful scent, and, he added, handsome enough to look at even before the brush touches it. Time is not incidental to this ink. It is, quite literally, part of the recipe.

The meaning of the product name is as follows: 

寸 ( sun : small )

心 ( shin: heart )

千 ( sen: thousand )

古 ( ko: past )