Chinese Calligraphy Brush / Kanji / Sumi Set (Basic)

Set came as pictured and described with no damaged pieces. Being a beginner in sumi e I can say this is a great starter set. Brushes, ink stick and stone seemed to be of good quality. Grinded some ink in the stone and there were no grinding noises or gritty feeling while making the ink. I think a round ink stick as opposed to the rectangle one supplied would have made grinding a bit easier since the grinding surface in the stone was round.The bruhes worked well. Ran a quick test piece to try the brushes, came out ok (considering I just started). The price for the set was great. If you feel its not for you down the road, no big investment! I would definitely suggest this set for the beginner.

Beautiful set. If you don't know Chinese calligraphy, this is a collector's item and great for display, or gift. There is a good reason why it is called "desktop 4 treasures". I took a picture and use it on the app Kung Fu Brush and it looks awesome. The seal is obviously for display unless you know how to carve it. The app allows me to make digital seal using classic calligraphy font. Notice: shown here with paper and paper weight from another company. The second photo I learned the Seal Script from the app, but it demonstrated the beauty and elegance of this set.

After a decade of buying gifts for my wife... THIS was the most excited she has ever been. It may not be the most fabulous, made-from-virgin-armpit-hair-brushes level of calligraphy set, but seems fine for someone to play around and try out what can be a challenging art form. No instructions, but there are plenty of videos on YouTube (many are oddly hilarious, too). So do a little research if this is all new to you. Lot of bang for the buck in this kit, mine arrived in perfect shape, no broken parts and included a bunch of rice paper sheets with training letters ghosted on to get you started, too. I think the Mrs. is planning a "ladies drink cocktails and do calligraphy night". Maybe they'll all end up in their undies. I dunno why us guys expect that all the time, but one can dream. What's the Chinese character for "wooooooohooooo" anyway???

The box it came in feels cheap and poorly made. The brushes do seem alright - as well as most of the stuff it came with (so far) however, the brush stand was completely obliterated when it arrived. Overall: 2 stars for quality and broken parts.

I rarely write reviews, but this set was so much larger and nicer than any of the sumi-e/calligraphy sets I've ever purchased. Even the ink stick is huge- doubt I will run out for years. The grinding stone/well is nice and heavy too. I have books already with various characters in Chinese/Japanese/Kanji so it wasnt an issue for me- however westerners new to this art should know that the the book it comes with is full of character painting directions but nothing is translated. -- That aside, this is a very solid and lovely set for yourself or a gift.

Arrived with mold on inside and outside of case, obvious water damage from a long time ago. Garage sale quality, not new. Has an extreme mold odor. This will be the first physical item I have returned in 5 years on amazon, of thousands of items. Disgusting to even handle with all the mold, and cobwebs even on inside. Washed my hands very well after handling.

The product came two days late with the little porcelain bowl cracked in two spots. I still give it three stars because my husband absolutely loved it despite the cracks. The box is beautiful and the brushes are of good quality as promised. Very stunning display! However, I do suggest the company should protect the delicate pieces in the box better. They were not individually wrapped in a strong material such as bubble wrap. Instead, a piece of flimsy paper was crumpled up inside the box.

This is a great kit for anyone starting to do ink-wash or calligraphy. Shipped right on time and every item was in-tact and accounted for. The presentation helps make this a 5 star purchase, as well as the selection of brushes. Similar kits are more expensive and contain fewer elements. Tip: run a small amount of white glue-stick where the brush meets the handle and tie with floss or thread, this keeps your brushes from fraying and helps to keep the points.

Came as described + more. Quality of price paid. Very quick delivery

The container for the red ink appears to have been previously opened. It was chipped and empty. The ink slab was not decorative as shown in the picture. I would expect the product include everything as pictured.

While I am satisfied overall, there were two things that did not impress me.First, what I did like:1. The brushes seemed to be good, beginner level quality and work well. Don't expect them to work like western-style watercolor brushes, which spring back fully to their original position after you lift them from the paper. The brushes in this set are natural hair, meaning they will stay partly bent over. But they do spring back some. Watch some youtube videos on sumi-e and Chinese calligraphy, and you will see this is normal. I am happy with their performance.2. The ink grinding stone appears to be made from natural black slate. Both the lid and stone were ground surprisingly flat and smooth, thus providing a nice air-tight seal. I actually have to twist/rock the lid off to overcome the air-tight suction. The inside is ground fairly smooth and nicely done.3. The ink stick is of acceptably good quality. The first time I ground it on the stone it took a whole 5 minutes to grind enough ink into 3 drops of water, possibly due to a hard "skin" on the end of the ink stick. But since that first time, I have easily been able to grind plenty of ink within a minute. The ink is reasonably black. Occasionally, some small chunks come off, which need to be picked out. Good for a beginner like me, but you may want to upgrade in the future to higher level ink sticks.4. The seal block is made of a very nice hardwood. But you will have to carve your own seal into it. The red seal paste appears fine, though I haven't used it yet.5. Included with the set is a package of calligraphy paper, marked with grids to help you match the characters in the instruction book also provided. It is entirely in Chinese, not English, but still looks useful since you can just paint to match the characters. I am using this set for sumi-e so these items won't be of use to me, but still nice to see the seller include these.Now for the two items I did not like:1. The box is cardboard, not wood. It was well made, though, with hinges and a locking hasp and had an attractive cloth covering - but - was not robust enough to withstand some shipping damage. The box was bent and twisted, so it won't sit flat on a table. One corner is raised an eight of an inch, so the box rocks back and forth.2. The water dipper/spoon is cheap yellow plastic and the handle is bowed. A metal spoon would have been nicer. I find the spoon doesn't work very well, so I use a drugstore water dropper (glass tube with rubber squeeze bulb on one end) instead.Overall, I feel the brushes and ink stone make the set worthwhile, because separately they could add up to more than the cost of the set. So the set is good, but not fantastic value.

Amazing quality.