A yatate (pronounced yah-tah-teh) is a Japanese portable writing set. The yatate has been around since the Kamakura period (1185-1333). It contains a traditional Japanese bamboo brush and an ink pot filled with cotton or silk which holds liquid sumi black ink.
This Yatate appears to be made of well patinated brass. Nowadays, people buy these yatate in order to hold a piece of Japanese writing history, as a decorative piece and can be used as a Washi paper holder while stroking the brush.
There is no brush with this yatate, long lost.
Age: mid to late 1800s
Made outlet from brass or copper alloy
7 inches long, 18 cm
3.3 oz, 93 g
By the time the Edo era had arrived (1603-1867) almost all yatate were shaped like a dipper (hishaku-gata) with a tube-like container for the brush, and a hinged ink pot (sumi tsubo). (As with this example)
Originally used exclusively by the Samurai, the yatate became very popular with merchants, scholars, and the common folk, especially when traveling. They were carried on the kimono waist sash (obi).
Even today the yatate is popular with artists as well as brush calligraphers. American watercolorist Fred Harris who is renown for his Japanese sumi ink painting always carries a sketchpad and yatate as he searches for new subjects in Japan. For those who enjoy sketching outdoors, nothing compares with the yatate for versatility and portability, not to mention the "cool" factor of having a hundred years or more of history attached to your writing set.
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Product code: Sale... Interesting Antique outlet Japanese Brass or Copper Yatate, Portable Sumi Ink Holder, Y-2003