Oh wow, I really appreciate it, Sashimister.
@dogsbody70: well, it depends on what I am writing. Hanshi size is a usual paper size used mainly for training. Slightly bigger than A4. Writing on it i use so called 大筆 おおふで (hairs are 4cm long), made either from horse hair or 羊毛, i.e. sheep hair. It also depends on what size of characters you want to write.
There are many types of brushes, depending on in what style you write, and what effect you want to achieve. For example, kasure (smudges of ink, inconsistent lines with lots of white spots) is usually achieved by using a soft brush made of sheep wool.
For example, below 墨妙 (marvelous ink) was written with 2 brushes combined together, one made of bird feathers, and another made of sheep wool. There is a lot of kasure there.
Hanshi works in my previous post were written with two different brushes, one was hard and springy, where the other one was soft. Soft brushes are usually harder to control. The edited calligraphy (無音無夢) was written with a soft brush.
There are stores selling calligraphy supplies online, although not sure if they ship abroad, but I could ask. There also should be some simple sets for calligraphy on e-bay. Not sure if you are looking for quality equipment or just something to play around with. The prices may vary drastically. Extreme quality brushes may cost even 10.000$ USD. Decent brush for practicing can be bought for 8-10 bucks.
Below are few of the large scale works of mine. Those were written with a hard brush, which hairs are 12cm in length. Paper size : 1350x700mm
They are not stamped with pen name seal, as I am in a process of carving one of proper size.
情熱 passion
無心 Zen philosophy phrase, meaning state of being free of obstructive thoughts
雷雨 thunderstorm
仏 Buddha, I used an old form of this character which is 佛
