At the Museum (I)

The Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Literature holds these days an original exhibit on Writers and Their Pens (from January 14th to February 26th). It is focused mostly on Japanese writers active on the second half of the twentieth century, albeit with some exceptions such as the very notable of SOSEKI Natsume (1867-1916).


Indeed, such a museum is a museum of fetishes. What truly matters of a writer is the final work. However, it is also fair to wonder how the tool would affect the work of art—would Tanizaki have written In Praise of Shadows ((陰翳礼讃, In'ei Raisan) on a keyboard? I guess not. “Elegance is frigid”, he said…

All stylophiles are fetishists. We value the tool over its actual function. What about writers themselves? Are they fetishists or mere users? An exhibit like this helps us to understand this question, no matter how irrelevant it might be to appreciate their work.

This is the first chronicle on some of the pens I had the chance to see and feel at the Museum.


Today I am showing this nice leather pen holder that belonged to SATOMI Ton (1888-1983). It was bought from the very prestigious shop of T. Tanizawa in Ginza, Tokyo. Inside, a Pelikan 400.


My thanks to Mr Niikura and Mr. Tarusawa, and to Mr. Kibo, chairman of the Museum.

(Pilot Super Ultra 500 – Athena Sepia)

Bruno Taut
February 6th, 2012
[labels: Pelikan, estilofilia, evento, Japón]