Muhiotch (/ˈmuhioʧ/)

Muhiotch is a cylindrical metal piece where one side is kept on fire and the other is covered with a handle made of a thick layer of Momzuma rope and finished with a leather decorated coat. It is used to make engravings in wooden planks. These wooden planks, the Muhiotsi. These engravings are usually representing the ancestors' faces and are passed from one generation to the firstborn of the next one. The muhiotchi has different formats of its blade point so the inscriber can make all details of the engravings necessary to represent the persons and their names on small pieces of wood. The most common is the fine pointed one, which makes most of the coarse details and the lettering. A half-moon shaped is used to create the long wavy hair and beard, found in many of the ancestors' depictions. Other common shapes are hooks, flat points and round blunt points. All the muhiotchi of the artist, or writer, depending on whom you ask, are kept on a fiery pot fed with living flames. The process is made usually with the person present, so they can be delineated with the minimum details needed. Then the person decides if he, or she, wants to be depicted as young or old, or with their current aspect. After the person leaves, the writer then starts to add details and features to the basic shapes until the complete image is obtained. The second phase is used on writing the names, titles or epithets chosen by the person depicted. The name writing follow ancient rules, it is not used a phonetical system and some of the older ones are just impossible to read because of the uncertainty they carry. The muhiotchi have to be kept regularly and are hammered back on their original shapes by a blacksmith. Usually, most of them are passed from generation to generation as the muhiotsi they are used to create. And some of them are older than most of the muhiotsi that existed on the clans, as they have to be remade every two or three generations.