In 2008, the sambar deer was listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List. This affected the use of its hair for calligraphy brushes, which used to be sold with names bearing the characters 山馬 in some form. Sambar deer hair is very rigid, more rigid than horse and weasel hair, but maybe less than boar hair.
I do have a few of such calligraphy brushes made from sambar deer hair. As usual, a 500 yen coin is there for size comparison.
From right to left:
The rightmost brush with a black handle was bought at a calligraphy supplies store in Singapore many many years ago. The brush portion is 55mm long with a diameter of 12mm. It served me well when I was writing pieces on 半紙 size paper (24.3x33.4cm).
The middle three brushes were given to me by a relative. The unused one, second from the right, has a brush portion that is 45mm long with a diameter of 7mm.
The third one from the right has a brush portion that is 45mm long but a diameter of 8mm. I sometimes use this brush to sign calligraphy works, especially when the work is written with a large soft goat hair brush (such as this, these, and this).
The fourth brush from the right (or third from the left) has a brush portion that is 60mm long with a diameter of 11mm. I also use it for writing on 半紙 size paper.
Meanwhile, the two brushes on the left were bought recently when a calligraphy supplies store was clearing stock. The leftmost brush has a brush portion that is 52mm long with a diameter of 7mm, while the second one from the left has a brush portion that is 34mm long with a diameter of 5mm. I found them at a very discounted price so I thought I would get them in case I ever need something like them in the future.
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