It is said that the first writing brush was developed over 4,000 years ago (around B.C. 2,500). In Japan, the writing brush has been used since the Nara period (‎710 – 794) as Buddhism became popular. Many Japanese Buddhists started Shakyo (写経) - copying of a sutra – which owed to the proliferation of people uising brushes for writing. This practice continued until other writing instruments such as lead pencils became popular in Japan c.1885. Children in Japan learn penmanship (calligraphy) as an individual subject within the curriculum through the 9-year-compulsory education system.
During elementary school, children focus on learning the basic technique of writing during the first to the third-year using pencils and then start using a wiring brush from the fourth-year of elementary school. In years five and six students focus on improving their wiring skills in terms of layout, writing speed and the selection of appropriate writing materials for particular styles of writing.
Junior high school students practice penmanship (calligraphy) for 50 hours over 3 years.
Some high schools also teach penmanship (calligraphy), but in this stage, penmanship (calligraphy) is more likely to be treated as part ofthe art form of calligraphy. The paleness of the ink has a meaning.

The culture exists in Japan of bringing money to either sad occasions (funerals) or happy occasions (weddings and new births). The money has to be put in special envelopes with your signature on the front of the envelope. For writing the signature, black ink is used for happy occasions and grey ink is used for sad occasions.
Using the grey symbolises and demonstrates how important a person was and shows respect to the dead person. People used to rub down an ink stick for generating black ink before writing so that the grey ink meant 'the black ink was diluted, because of someone’s tears. or 'I grudged my time to rub down the ink stick as I wanted to come here as soon as possible'.
Fewer and fewer people had the chance to use a writing brush and in recent times even fewer people have rubbed down an ink stick. Traditional customs and histories can be seen and it makes Japanese people feel very nostalgic towards calligraphy and the act of writing.