Calligraphy box decorated with gentians

In Japan and in other East Asian cultures, the main tools for writing were a brush and ink. People used writing boxes (suzuribako) like these to store their implements. This set includes a brush, an inkstone, a water dropper, and a small knife for cutting paper. The first step to writing was to prepare the ink, which required grinding the solid inkstick against the inkstone (here, the glazed green plate) with some water from the water dropper (shaped as a yellow knot). Writing boxes are primarily associated with calligraphy, but the same utensils were used for drawing as well.