Trying out two goat hair calligraphy brushes

After testing out the soft goat hair calligraphy brush, I got more confident in my ability to handle soft brushes. I mean, you can't get any softer than a soft goat hair brush. This prompted me to attempt writing more with goat hair calligraphy brushes. I got two of them on auction sites. Both are made fully with goat hair, but not the soft ones.

This is the first one that I tried this time. It is a 双喜牌金鼎大号 Hu brush. I couldn't find any references online to what the original retail price was, but I got it for a relatively good price at an auction.

The length of the hair is around 80mm with a diameter of 14mm. It writes very nicely, but the hairs have a tendency to split into two groups when it gets a bit dryer.  I think it could also be my fault, because I didn't really start the brush very well. Here is something written with this brush.

 

The next brush is this 精品純羊毫 "天" from 東京宝玉堂. The original retail price is supposed to be 15,000 yen, but I could not find any online references to confirm. I got it for less than a fifth of that price, though.

The hair is 78mm long with a diameter of 10mm. It writes very well, and can be used to express a variety of strokes by varying speed and such. Here is something written with this brush.

I am getting used to writing with goat hair calligraphy brushes and I really like how they can express a wider range of strokes compared to harder brushes. However, this set of three bear hair calligraphy brushes (carved with 水墨丹青) going for less than 1,500 yen on Aliexpress [affiliate link] is still one of the best brushes I have, in terms of ease of writing. The hair retains its shape very well so it is easy to write, it is smooth enough that it doesn't seem to drag on paper, and it holds enough ink that it can be used to express varying degrees of dryness as intended. Goat hair brushes are not very good at retaining their shapes, but this allows them to express a wider variety of stroke styles.

Recently, I have been writing a lot about calligraphy. At this rate, my blog is turning into a calligraphy blog. But I guess it can't be helped, since my recent focus is on calligraphy, with the submission deadline for the upcoming exhibition less than two weeks away.