Arts and Entertainment

Sumi-e artist Roslyn Levin shares artistic adventure in Japan

October 9, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“I don’t know if my feet will ever be entirely on the ground,” said sumi-e artist Roslyn Levin, who is based in Orangeville. “My trip to Japan was just wonderful!”

Katherine Stark, who was Levin’s travel companion, is her friend and her student of sumi-e, about whom Levin said, “Katherine has travelled extensively. I haven’t travelled.”

The two of them had discussed the idea of travelling to Japan, imbued as they are in the culture of traditional Japanese brush stroke painting and calligraphy.

Finally, they decided: “We should go for it!”

They started researching and worked together, and then “the plan to go to one place, Nara, for a whole month, came together beautifully.”

Nara was the first established capital of Japan in 710 A.D.

They decided to make their own residency – the trip was mainly about sumi-e, visiting a few ink and brush makers.

It was a journey of hospitality and happy meetings. When they arrived in Nara, they were very pleased to discover the accommodation they had booked was a whole house that was very beautiful.

“We visited the company, Kobaien, that makes my sumi (ink) that I have been using for almost 50 years,” she said.

Her contact at Ichi Ink, Keitaro, acted as their host and took them through Kobaien, where they have been making ink for sumi-e and shodo (Japanese calligraphy) for over 600 years. Their other guide, the other manager of the Kobaien store, told them the story of how the ink is made.

Also, “We stood in the room where the oil is burned to make the soot for the ink,” she related.

Another day, they experienced “Ink gripping,” which refers to a hands-on workshop at the historic Kinkoen.
“We worked with Kinkoen’s sixth-generation artisan, Bokuen Nagano, who honoured us by allowing us to call him Yoshi,” Levin said.
In this workshop, you knead soft, fragrant sumi-e ink into a unique, hand-shaped piece, creating a one-of-a-kind artifact that preserves the imprint of your fingers and hands. This experience allows visitors to connect with the rich history and culture of Japanese ink-making, culminating in a beautifully packaged keepsake.

“We returned to visit with Yoshi again and met his wife, seven-year-old grandson, and his son, who will take over the position of head ink-maker from him. He presented us each with a work of calligraphy by one of his close friends.” Levin recalled.

Later, they had “a brush-making experience with Chiyomi Tanaka, the only official female Japanese brush-maker.”

They talked about feather brushes, which Levin likes to make. All are perfect for traditional Japanese brush stroke painting.

As their exploration of Nara continued, the two travellers found out about places from other people.

There was a family running a shop for six generations, and other brush-making facilities.

They travelled by train to a small town called Ayabe, stayed overnight with their host, Teruyuki, and his family, in a small village. The following day, they went to Kuritano, an ancient paper-making facility “whose paper I have used for many years, and made paper.”

A Sumi-e museum called them and they went there by train.

On the second floor, in a little glass area, was a man who weighed and rolled ink and set it aside, a small roll at a time, very quickly.

They ventured into a place of lacquer work, inlay, and paper, and created wonderful objects.

Setting the picture of a woman working on a piece, Levin explained, “There was a wood bowl, huge with inlays of mother of pearl and, using lacquered paper she was repairing her grandmother’s bowls.”

Another picture of “a lady was making pottery and putting her pieces in the shop she owned.

“We worked on pottery for two hours; the glazier offered, he would glaze one of ours or one of his. I took one of his and Katherine asked for him to glaze one of her own.”

Part of what made their time so special was that they were there for a month: “We did shodo and we were there for a month, but mainly, people stayed for only a few days,” said Levin.

“People really appreciated us because we stayed there for a whole month.”

Before long, someone said, “I heard about you.” Nara is a town of about 30,000 people.

Their guide took them to a traditional Japanese lunch.

In the small village, two children asked if they wanted to see fireflies by a lake. There were hundreds of fireflies, and they took pictures. A four-year-old girl was putting fireflies in her basket to look at them and letting them go.

Nara city is a twin city with Jerusalem, and there is a statue of Anne Frank, they learned. Two cultures intersecting.

Chance had them make paper in the paper-making factory. “We were the first people who came and bought paper; the first to come who knew about it.

The house they stayed in was a six-minute walk from one of two train stations, where there is a huge grocery store, where they stopped.

To have small gifts to give back to people where Levin and Stark were visiting, they had painted 5×7 paintings of “just whatever I wanted” on cards.

“It was so nice to have something to give. NARA is the first capital city of Japan where shodo and sumi-e entered the country,” said Levin.

They took time to paint while they were there too.

Roslyn reflected, “I already loved what I do. It was a renewed joy in my world – brought back what it was like when I first started.

Be sure to check out Levin’s sumi-e paintings in the window of Dragonfly Arts in Orangeville. They are wonderful.

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