Q.Is it true that Nara makes 90% of Japan's ink sticks?

About 90% — stated on the city's official site

Nara ink sticks hold a national share of about 90% — a figure stated on the official site of the City of Nara (Industrial Policy Division), on a solid-ink basis (as confirmed in 2026). In other words, almost all the ink sticks made in Japan come from Nara. Travel and craft media sometimes say "about 95% is made in Nara," but that is a reference value rather than official statistics. It is safest to treat the city's official 90% as the baseline and read the answer conservatively as "around 90%."

It began with Kukai and Kofuku-ji's Nitaibo (by tradition)

By tradition, in 806 (Daido 1) the priest Kukai, who had traveled to Tang China as part of a diplomatic mission, brought back the method for making ink along with brushes, and first made it at Nitaibo, a hall of Kofuku-ji temple. The hall's lamp-soot ink is said to have earned a reputation as fine "Nara ink." Even after the capital moved to Kyoto, many temples and shrines remained in Nara, and ink-making — essential for copying sutras — took root and was handed down there. This is held to be why Nara became a major center of ink production.

Designated a national Traditional Craft in 2018 — Nara's third

On 7 November 2018, Nara ink was designated a national Traditional Craft by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry under the law for promoting traditional craft industries. Within Nara Prefecture it was the third such designation, after Takayama tea whisks (1975) and Nara brushes (1977). Looking only at ink as a category, it was the second to be designated nationwide, after Suzuka ink from Mie Prefecture. The ink is made by kneading together soot, animal glue and fragrance, and is produced in the cold season each year, from mid-October to the end of April.

A high share, but makers have dwindled fast

Even with a roughly 90% share, the makers who sustain it have shrunk dramatically. The number of ink shops has swung over time: about 54 at the Edo-period peak, a plunge to 11 at the end of that era, and a recovery to about 37 in the Meiji period when calligraphy became a compulsory primary-school subject. It then fell again as demand for ink contracted, leaving only about eight workshops able to handle the full process today, with around ten craftspeople. The Nara Ink Makers' Cooperative had nine member companies as of 2022. Output, too, is far below its historic peak — so the high market share reflects holding nearly all of a deeply shrunken domestic market.

Datasets behind this article

• Nara's Nationally Designated Traditional Crafts奈良県
• Economic Census (Manufacturing)総務省統計局・経済産業省