Peco & Paco

ペコとパコ

This past Sunday (May 23rd), the monthly Pen Clinic organized by the Wagner association took place in Tokyo, at the same location as the Wagner 2010 Pen Show already reported on these chronicles.

These monthly events have the main purpose of fixing and tuning the pens of those attending it. About six pen gurus were ready to listen to our concerns about our beloved pens and work quickly and efficiently on them. The charismatic leader of Wagner, Mr. Mori, doubles as a pen doctor on duty. Two others are Peco –we met her at the Pen Show—, and Paco. Both are masters in the art of smoothing and tuning the nibs.

Peco...

...and Paco.

Other than that, the clinic works as a social gathering to exchange information and to test each other’s pens. Magnificent pens were scattered on the tables. Kimi Tarusawa showed a very rare Pelikan M800 with brown tortoise shell. According to some sources, Pelikan archivist Jürgen Dittmer among them, it was commissioned in 1987 by some Spanish vendors.

Peco-san is the proud owner of a trio of exquisite Soennecken Lady 111 in mint condition. A real pleasure to write with them!

Mr. Capless also joined us. He has the complete collection of Pilot/Namiki Capless (Vanishing Point the US market). To this event, he brought only a small sample of his collection to show the differences between Namiki Vanishing Point and Pilot Capless.

The box also included his recently purchased Lamy Dialog 3, and the pair composed by the Pilot Capless in regular black finish and its apparent twin --the black urushi Capless Pilot released on the occasion of the Maki-e Fair in Itoya.

How to make a flexible Sailor nib. Final tuning by Paco-san.

Other variations on the form of being obsessed.

Excellent pens and excellent people with great knowledge on their object of their obsessions.

(Morison Pocket Pen 14 K – Pelikan Brilliant Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, 25 May 2010)
[labels: Evento, Pelikan, Japón, Tokyo, Soennecken, Pilot, Lamy]

Frills

Itoya’s Maki-e Fair 2010

(This event was celebrated in a shop, and unfortunately the management did not authorized pictures. However, this being Japan, too often these decisions are enforced or not depending on the staff in charge. Fellow Fountain Pen Network subscriber Moskva (http://dondellinger.com/mipiace/index.php?) was allowed to take some pictures and I thank him for his permission to include them in this post. They are also published in this entry of the above-linked blog: http://dondellinger.com/mipiace/index.php?post/2010/05/18/Exposition-Maki-e-chez-Ito-ya).

These days –from May 12 to 24— stationery Itoya in Ginza (shop no. 15 in this link) in Tokyo organized what they called a Maki-e Fair. Five were the exhibitors invited to it: The three leading Japanese companies –Pilot-Namiki, Platinum-Nakaya, and Sailor—, the California-based Danitrio, and a fifth one dealing with Aurora, Caran d’Ache, Parker, Pelikan, and Waterman. All those brands showed their creations in maki-e and urushi (lacquer).

Pilot introduced a 10-unit limited edition of a black urushi finished exclusively for the Fair for JPY 52500. It only came with M nib. The whole line of maki-e by Pilot and all the Namiki branded pens were on display.

The lower pen is urushi finished; the upper one, the regular black pen with golden accents. The difference, JPN 36750, and the nibs are exactly the same. Picture taken at the May meeting of the Wagner association (May 23, 2010).

Some pens by Nakaya together with matching business card holders. Picture courtesy of Moskva.

Platinum presented their first maki-e pen after a long time (I cannot find how long…), but their main selling point were those marketed under the Nakaya brand. However, the Nakaya craftsmen only attended the event on the last four days.

Two more Nakaya pens. Picture courtesy of Moskva.

Danitrio made the big news being invited to attend the fair by Itoya. And from now on, this shop will carry their line of products. Urushi and maki-e –with examples of good and unbelievable bad taste— were present on display. All the art on these pens is made in Japan; all the nibs –with one Japanese exception— are made in Germany by Peter Bock. They also displayed their 24 K gold nib.

Danitrio urushi pens. Picture courtesy of Moskva.

Sailor showed their urushi King of Pen line.

Sailor's King of Pens in urushi finish. Picture courtesy of Moskva.

Finally, the Western companies showed their very limited set of products. Among them, two M1000-based Pelikan limited editions –Maiko in Kyoto and Fireworks—, and the Sérenité based Waterman models were the more interesting products.

There was also a maki-e workshop for those interested in learning the basics of the technique. It costed JPY 2100 and was quickly sold out.

Certainly, I am not enticed by these pens, Actually, I wonder if they really were pens ready to write. For sure, some of them were, as I had the chance to test some of the pieces. However, the writing experience was not in accordance with the price tag. And that is what finally counts.

(Pilot Telescopic – Waterman Florida Blue)

Bruno Taut
(Shibuya, May 22, 2010)
[labels: Tokyo, Pilot, Sailor, Platinum, Danitrio, evento, FPN]

Lentejuelas

Para Merino-san, físico silente.

Una pluma es un artefacto para controlar a nuestra conveniencia la dinámica de fluidos. De ese control se deriva el dosificado constante de la tinta –el fluido en cuestión— que nos permite escribir.

Y todo lo demás es accesorio. Bello en muchos casos, pero accesorio.

Es decir, que lo fundamental en una pluma es el sistema compuesto por el plumín, el alimentador y el depósito de tinta. Y después podemos discutir sobre sistemas de llenado, sobre materiales del cuerpo de la pluma o sobre el sexo de los ángeles. Por supuesto, que la pluma debería ser cómoda y equilibrada para que su uso sea agradable y relajado. Pero estos puntos poco tienen que ver con el aspecto externo de la misma.

Sin embargo, las plumas han pasado de ser un instrumento básicamente práctico a ser un objeto de coleccionismo. Y como tal, sus propiedades escritoras pueden pasar a un segundo plano. Entonces, los materiales empleados o la ornamentación de la pluma pueden adquirir la importancia antes reservada al plumín y, en menor medida, al alimentador.

Así surgen marcas y modelos cuyos argumentos de venta nada tienen que ver con su función última. Plumas que, en definitiva, no se venden para escribir con ellas sino para exhibir.

Sólo así se entienden esos objetos de decenas de miles de euros o dólares, de millones de yen, con plumines de oro de 24 quilates –sí, de un oro del 100% de pureza— que difícilmente verán la tinta y el papel. Porque un plumín de 24 quilates es muy blando y se deforma muy fácilmente. Porque salvo resistencia a la corrosión –y con 14 quilates ya es muy alta— nada se gana con tener más oro. Tan sólo aumenta el orgullo del propietario al presumir de un objeto de dudosa utilidad práctica con un accesorio, que antes llamábamos plumín, hecho de oro puro.

Otro tanto se puede decir de la lujuriosa decoración de capuchones y cuerpos. De esos elaborados motivos en maki-e u otras técnicas igualmente ancestrales. Y no es casualidad que esos plumines ya inútiles, esos accesorios, estén combinados con estos ornatos.

Al final la pluma se convierte en un objeto decorativo, en una obra de arte tal vez. Pero en un objeto tan alejado de su función inicial que debiera cambiar de nombre. Eso ya no es una pluma, es otra cosa.

Y en otra entrada hablaré de lo que vi en la Feria de Maki-e de Itoya en Tokyo.

(Sailor Profit 21 Junior – Sailor Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Yokohama, 20 de mayo de 2010)
[labels: estilofilia, evento]

Origami

(Commentator Anele was right, by whatever means, in discovering the non-pocket pen among those displayed on my previous post. Finally I got some pictures and here you have a review and some comments on that pen. I also wanted to thank my fellow blogger Leigh Reyes for her permission to reproduce the scan of the 1968 calendar advertising the pen).

According to A. Lambrou, or to whoever wrote the chapter on Japan, in his book Fountain Pens of the World (London, 1995), in 1968 Pilot was in a difficult economic situation. The company’s reaction was to launch the very successful Elite series and, as a result, Pilot became the leading fountain pen company in Japan.

However true this might be, year 1968 also saw –as I mentioned on my May 17th post— the birth of pocket pen concept: a short pen that becomes regular sized when posted. Aiming at the student market —again citing Lambrou— a cheaper Elite version, named S-Karakara, and the Telescopic Pen were released.

This Telescopic Pen could be seen as an alternative to pocket pens: short when capped, long when needed. But the means to become full size are totally different. The Telescopic Pen has a barrel that, by pulling by its ends, or simply by uncapping it, becomes about sixteen millimeters longer: from 114 mm to 120 mm long, unposted.

This pen came with 14 K gold and steel nibs, the metallic parts could also be golden or steel in color, and the section and the barrel could also have several colors. The following picture is taken from a 1968 calendar and displays this pen under the name of "Short":

(Courtesy of Leigh Reyes)

The one I am using now has a fairly wet 14 K medium nib. Very smooth. But dries fast and occasionally it does not start promptly after some seconds of hesitation in my writing. Nice pen to write with, although it certainly lacks character.

As it is often the case on pens from the 50s and 60s in Japan, mine is engraved with the name of one of his owners. I like this detail as it shows this pen had some life and saw some action.

I have not seen many of these pens on the second hand market in Tokyo. When I bought it, though, there was another unit with steel nib and non textured steel finish for the same price. Only later I saw a small defect on the clip.

At the end, the pocket pen won the battle to the origami pen.

(Pilot Telescopic – Waterman Florida Blue)

Bruno Taut
(Shinjuku, May 19, 2010)
[labels: Japón, Pilot]

Pockets

Pocket pens are a genuine Japanese invention. These are pens with very long sections and caps, and very short barrels. The cap, however, fits tightly on the barrel when posted making a full size pen to write. Indeed, these pens need to be posted to use them comfortably. Pilot was the company that launched this idea in 1968, and the rest of Japanese companies followed suit soon afterwards. (This is not correct—the first pocket pen was released by Sailor in 1963).

Some Pilot, Platinum, Sailor and Morison pocket pens.

One of the most successful models was, needless to say, the Pilot Myu 701, to the point to become a cult pen about thirty-something years after it was released. Pilot Company itself contributed to this situation by taking it as the inspiration for the M90 model designed and marketed to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the firm.

All look alike: Pilot, Platinum and Sailor. Just a coincidence?

These pens came in a number of styles and materials, making them expensive or cheap. There was no status associated to the fact of using a small pen, and you could indeed find beautiful nibs in 21 or 18 K gold as well as small steel nibs. At the same time, the trends were often copied by the rest of Japanese manufacturers, always having a close eye on their direct competitors.

The nibs of the six pens shown in the previous pic.

These pens are truly interesting to follow, and –more often than not— inexpensive to buy. Unfortunately, they seem confined to the Japanese market.

(Platinum WG full size – Platinum black cartridge)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, May 15, 2010)
[labels: Japón, Pilot, Sailor, Platinum, Morison]

(Note: Among the pens shown on the pictures there is one that is not properly a pocket pen. Can anyone out there point it out? I will speak about it as soon as I take some decent pictures of it.)

Mix

To Suomi-san, ink addict.

This I saw some weeks ago:



Japanese fountain pen company Sailor has changed its line of inks as part of their more aggressive marketing strategy. And to show them, an ink mixologist, armed with all the paraphernalia of a barman, tunes the ink color to your taste.

The Sailor webpage, event section, details the schedules: http://www.sailor.co.jp/event.

And regarding events. from May 12th to 24th stationery Itoya (links to the map and to my post on pen shops in Tokyo) holds a maki-e show with a number of makers –most likely Japanese— showing their products. I am planning to go to have a look. Anyone coming?

(Platinum WG full size – Platinum black, cartridge)

Bruno Taut
(Machida, May 10, 2010)
[labels: tinta, Tokyo, Japón, evento, Sailor]

Goshuin

The writing tradition in East Asia does not rely on the stylus —on the pen— but on the brush. This is most evident in the art form of calligraphy in China, Korea and Japan. This calligraphy, so different from the Western penmanship, acquires a quasi-religious meaning in Japan in the form of shodō —書道.

The name of this discipline involves the term dō –道–: path, way; showing the constant struggle for perfection. Budō (武道), bushidō, (武士道), kadō (華道), sadō (茶道) … All of them imply that journey in search of excellence. Much in the mystic mode of Teresa of Ávila and her The Way of Perfection (Camino de perfección).

Religious superstitions aside, what we finally get is a form of art with a brush. And it is easy to get some samples of it in Japan. In most temples —Buddhist— and shrines —Shinto— you can find a monk in charge of these stamps to certify the passing through that station in the pilgrimage route.


These certificates are called goshuin –御朱印. Usually, they are a combination of a stamp and some writing. Sometimes they are great, impressive, amazing. The monk mastered his art and showed it. Some other times, the writing is plain and boring —anyone could write those. But such is life.

Buy the goshuin notebook (goshuin-chô, 御主印帳) in any stationery shop —check my May 2, 2010 entry— or at the temple itself, and ask for the stamp. Boring or exciting, the final collection will speak of your own dō.

(Sailor WG Pocket Pen – Pelikan Brilliant Brown)

Bruno Taut
(Fuchu, April 7th 2010)

[labels: Japón, pincel]