Since ancient times, the traditional writing utensil in Japan has been the fude, or brush. Brushes have been replaced by pencils and fountain pens, but the name of the container for brushes, fude-bako, or brush box, remains unchanged. This is so even to this day, as we approach the 21st century.
This brush box contains a writing pencil and drawing pencil, color pencils, a mechanical pencil, eraser and compass, among other items. The absence of ballpoint pens and felt-tip pens reflects how times have changed since then.
Incidentally, hexagonal-shape pencils are a Japanese invention. Before their debut, pencils were cylindrical.