Lit. painting brush. Any of numerous categories of paint brushes made in Japan of various natural materials and used to apply *sumi 墨 ink or pigments to paintings and works of calligraphy. An efude consists of a head called hitsugō 筆豪, or sometimes hō 鋒, or ho 穂 (ear); and a holder called hikkan 筆管 or jiku 軸 (axis). Heads can be made of various kinds of animal hair or feathers, or plants such as bamboo and straw (see *warafude 藁筆). Most commonly holders are made of bamboo but wood, jade, ceramic, and metal are also used. In early Japan a brush with a rolled-paper core called makifude 巻筆 was used but after the 15th century brushes without a core such as sabakifude 捌筆 (no starch applied to the head) and suihitsu 水筆 (contains a lot of ink in the head) became popular.
For Japanese water colors done in a Western style, sable brushes tenmō 貂毛 and brushes made from the summer fur of animals natsuge 夏毛 are employed; for oil pigments, stiff brushes of pig's bristles and soft brushes made of black sable are used. These vary in width and may be flat or round, large or small. Also for western-style painting, wide flat brushes *hake 刷毛 are commonly used to apply varnish or spread water over pigments.
Brushes made of animal hair mōhitsu 毛筆 are used both for calligraphy and painting. Sakuyōhitsu 削用筆, made of sheep or weasel hair, are used to delineate general outlines, while sokumyōhitsu 則妙筆, made of soft, long hairs of sheep or cat, are used to draw final ink lines as well as for color application. For thin, fine, even lines such as hair on figures, a slender mensōfude 面相筆, generally made of mixture of weasel and badger hair, is employed. Brushes used to apply color are called saishikifude 彩色筆, and are made of sheep, horse, or deer hair; these come in various sizes. Kumadorifude 隈取筆, used to add water to attain the effects of shading and tonal gradations, are made of sheep and horse hair, with badger hair added for very thick brushes. Hirafude 平筆, flat brushes about 3 cm in width used to apply color, are made of sheep and white horse hair. A renpitsu 連筆 is made of several medium-sized round brushes joined together to form a single brush about the width of a hake. Used for undercoatings and color applications, renpitsu differ from hake in the amount of water they can hold. Also the soft roundness of the clusters gives a greater brush-like feeling than the hake. A brush used for paintings where ink and pigments are applied without outlines is called tsuketatefude 付立筆 (see *tsuketate 付立) or mokkotsufude 没骨筆 (see *mokkotsu 没骨).