(CNN) -- Shin Takemori throws a handful of old brushes onto a fire on a flat stone "altar," where a mound of similar brushes is already ablaze. A dozen people queue behind him, waiting to do the same. Collective garbage disposal? No -- this is a ritual cremation. "It's to honor the souls of the brushes, for the work they've done," explains Takemori, president of Chikuhodo Ltd., one of 80 family run brush-making companies located in Kumano, Japan. Used brushes from all over Japan are brought here to end their days. The brush pyre is a key part of the Fude no Matsuri, or Brush Festival, held annually in Kumano, a mountain town 20 kilometers east of Hiroshima.
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Of the town of Kumano's 27,000 inhabitants, 1,500 are brush craftsmen
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The best time to visit is September, when the annual Brush Festival takes place
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When demand for calligraphy brushes declined, Kumano companies began producing high-end makeup brushes
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Kumano turns out 15 million brushes a year -- 80% of Japan's total brush production
They combined different brush making techniques they'd learned on their travels and developed a method unique to @placeholder.