Shop for sumi and shodō art from Japan · Curated from Berlin
Japanese calligraphy and handmade objects
Curated works in ink, character, and paper — directly from renowned artists in Japan.
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Selected works
Shodo, firsthand
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Featured Artist
SumiFox × Calligraphy 墨麗
Small Shodo formats by an established Japanese calligrapher — curated for living and working spaces in Europe.
With Hatanaka Sachiyo / 畠中咲菫, SumiFox begins its first real artist collaboration. Her large-format calligraphy is shown in galleries; for SumiFox she creates smaller formats that bring ink, character, and paper into an accessible form suitable for everyday spaces.
New in the line-up
New in the line-up: 竹村千佳子 / Takemura Chikako
With Takemura Chikako, SumiFox adds an expressive, abstract position in Japanese calligraphy to its artist line-up. Her works present ink as trace, movement and open image space.
View artistNew in the line-up
New in the line-up: 中川冨美代 / Nakagawa Fumiyo
With Nakagawa Fumiyo, SumiFox adds a free and expressive position connected to the Bokujinkai context. Her works bring together inner image, physical ink movement and open paper space.
View artistRooms
Where will your work find its place? Explore originals by how you use a room — independently of occasions or wishes.
What is Sumi?
Sumi is Japanese ink. In SumiFox the word stands for more than a material: for line, paper, trace, and concentration. Sumi is what remains when a brush movement ends.
What is Shodo?
Shodo (書道) literally means “the way of writing”. It is a practice of brush, ink, paper, rhythm, space, and meaning — and at the same time an art form in its own right.
Read more about ShodoDirect relationships
Artists at SumiFox
Meet Hatanaka Sachiyo, Takemura Chikako and Nakagawa Fumiyo: three distinct artistic voices, connected through ink, paper and direct relationships with SumiFox.
Why SumiFox
Carefully curated, fairly sourced
SumiFox buys directly from artists and workshops in Japan, pays fair prices, and treats artist, object, motif, and customer with equal respect. We choose few works well rather than selling many quickly.
About SumiFoxDiscover Shodō and sumi
Understanding Shodō – history, script and artistic expression
Shodō (書道) is the Japanese art of writing with brush and ink. It builds on script adopted from China, developed its own forms with kana, and today ranges from classical practice to free, image-like works.
6 min read · Read article →
Sumi – material, making and use of Japanese ink
Sumi (墨) is East Asian ink made from soot and animal glue. Traditionally it is produced as a solid stick and ground with water on an inkstone. Nara has been Japan's main production centre for centuries.
6 min read · Read article →
Brush, paper and inkstone – the tools of Shodō
Shodō works with four basic tools: brush, ink, inkstone and paper. Their interplay — how much ink the brush holds, how finely it is ground and how strongly the paper absorbs — decides what a line looks like. This article explains the tools; the ink itself is covered in the sumi article.
5 min read · Read article →
Looking at a Shodō work – character, line, rhythm and space
A Shodō work has three levels: what the character means, how it is read and how it is executed. Anyone can see the third level — in line, ink, rhythm and unwritten space. Two executions of the same character show how differently that can work.
4 min read · Read article →
Calligraphy as a profession – teaching, exhibitions and commissions
People who work professionally with the brush today usually combine several activities: their own practice, teaching, exhibitions, commissions and sales. Historical learning paths such as practising after a model continue, but routes are diverse. Ranks and prizes signal visibility — not the only measure of artistic quality.
4 min read · Read article →
Choosing an original – provenance, condition, format and price
An original is a single hand-written sheet. Good bases for a decision are documented artist information, exact dimensions, openly described condition and an idea of where the work will hang. The price reflects work, format, career and mediation — it is not a statement about future value.
4 min read · Read article →