Glass Fragment from Calligraphy Set Found in Japan

KYOTO, JAPAN—The Asahi Shimbun reports that a fragment of a twelfth-century glass vessel was unearthed in an area of nobles’ homes in Heiankyo, Japan’s ancient capital. Researchers from the Gangoji Institute for Research of Cultural Property in Nara say the bluish-green fragment may have been part of the spout of a “suiteki” container, which would have been imported from China during the Heian Period, from A.D. 794 to 1185, for dropping water onto ink-grinding stones. The site may have been a base to distribute imported suiteki to aristocrats in Kyoto. For more, go to “Japan’s Early Anglers.”