noun
inkstone
A stone mortar used in East Asian calligraphy to grind ink sticks with water.
硯で墨をすって、書道の練習を始めた。
I ground ink on the inkstone and started calligraphy practice.
墨 is the ink stick or liquid ink, while 硯 is the stone tool used to grind the ink stick with water.
文房四宝 refers to the Four Treasures of the Study: brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. 硯 is one of them.
The kanji 硯 is composed of 石 (stone) and 見 (see), reflecting its use as a stone tool for preparing ink. The reading すずり is native Japanese.