Water-dropper (calligraphy)

Water-dropper

A water-dropper (Mandarin Chinese: 水滴; Pinyin: [shuǐdī]; Japanese: 水滴 [suteki]) is a small device used in East Asian calligraphy. It's a container designed to hold a small amount of water. In order to make ink a few drops of water must be dropped onto the plain of the inkstone, by grinding an inkstick on the inkstone one can make ink. Due the grinding small particles comes off the inkstick and will mix with the water, these two components will form ink.

Water-droppers may be made of copper, jade and stone or ceramic. A water-dropper has two small holes for water and air, it is designed so that only a few drops of water can fall at one time.

There are a few types of water-droppers.

Type of water-dropper	Hanzi / Kanji	Pinyin	Rōmaji
Water-dropper with pouring spout and a handle	水注	shuǐzhù	suichuu
Water-droppers in diverse forms with large openings	水中丞	shuǐzhōngchéng	suichuujou
Jar-like water-droppers with large opening	水盂	shuǐyú	suiu
Frog shaped water-dropper	蟾蜍	chánchú	senjo

<references>