This is my well loved watercolor set from Saiundo Fujimoto, one of my favorite places on Earth. Located on a quiet side street in central Kyoto, Saiundo has been selling brushes, pigments, ink, and other traditional art materials in Kyoto since the Meiji era. The painter Tomioka Tessai was once a customer, and the shop still carries a sign he painted more than a century ago. Inside, shelves of powdered mineral pigments make the place feel somewhere between an art store, an apothecary, and a near-religious experience.
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Saiundo when I visited Japan several years ago. I'm hoping to return some day but even if it turns out to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it will be enough.