Cast iron Chinese or Japanese chop seal ink container with Phoenix

Hi all
I picked up this heavy little 3" diameter seal ink container with a cool Phoenix on the lid.
Very heavy at almost 14 oz. I am pretty sure it is iron (magnet sticks). The ink is dry and very hard. I would like to know more about it if anyone has seen one like this before.

Mikey

 

I have something similar here - cast iron seal/chop ink container with hard red ink. Mine looks like a basket weave but it's the same idea.

 

Caution - such red ink/paste was made with ground cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) and is toxic.

 

That's why the lid is on and so it sits. The only mercury I want to mess with is inside of a thermometer.

 

When we were kids (pre 1950) an' dimes were real money, one of my buddies got ahold of some Mercury. We dabbed a dime into it, then rubbed it with our grubby fingers 'til it alloyed the silver surface, producing the brightest shiny finish! We had noticed how slippery it became while rubbing...so we each, one after the other, slipped it into our mouths to see what it felt an' tasted like. Neither the Mercury or the dime were mine, so I wound up at least third taster.
I'm still here, y'know...an' I wonder why, an' for how much longer?

 

That's a sweet piece of cast iron, for sure. Nice find...Thanks!

 

Nice find, Mikey. Japanese, imo.

Certainly looks it. The Japanese did a lot in iron.

 

I was leaning towards Japanese, but was waiting to hear from others. Thank you @Any Jewelry
Made my day.

Mikey