sumi

American  

[soo-mee] / ˈsu mi /

noun

Japanese.

1. black ink made from a mixture of plant soot and glue solidified into sticks or cakes the ends of which are scraped or ground into water on an ink slab, much used by calligraphers and painters.

---

Example Sentences

Her whimsical, slightly spooky creatures in clay, as well as in sumi ink on paper, drip and bubble with underworldly, mystical delight.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 2, 2024

After gently placing the rockfish onto the table, Dwight Hwang paints the top layer of fish with a light layer of onyx Japanese sumi ink.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2023

She instead overlaid wire-frame drawings of New York, Cairo and Addis Ababa with forests of short, sharp, freely drawn lines, made with a watery black sumi ink used in East Asian calligraphy.

From New York Times • Mar. 25, 2021

It’s one of several paintings in which black sumi ink of traditional Asian screen painting is augmented by other hues.

From Washington Post • Jul. 23, 2015

Ergo quantitas visionis debet sumi a lumine gloriæ quod datur secundum mensuram meritorum, non autem a perfectione intellectus, quæ non datur ex meritis.

From The Happiness of Heaven By a Father of the Society of Jesus by Boudreaux, F. J.