Brass Fire Starter? Pipe? Calligraphy?

[Vwdoyle]

I'm not sure where to even begin.  It's solid brass about 12" long and only one end on the long section opens.  The long container section housed the two small pieces of bamboo that are sharpened at one end.  The small bowl area has what appears to be horse hair.  Any help on what this might be would be greatly appreciated. 

[Vwdoyle]

More pics

[KC]

Are there any markings on it anywhere?

My first impression was a traveling pen set....

[Ipcress]

KC, there's a mark near the inkwell at the end of the main housing section.

It's a yatate. Unusual to find it complete.

[cogar]

Thanks Ipcress.

Had to look that up and “WOW”, ….. Wikii denoted it as being …. “a small personal smoking-pipe-shaped writing sets from medieval Japan”.

T'would be nice iffen it was 1,000 years old.

[Mat]

To me the shape looks more like the Ottoman version to me, called divit, and maybe rather from the 19th century, but the function remains the same...

[Vwdoyle]

Thank you very much for your responses.  It does appear to be a later one from the 19th century.