12 March 2019

150 Years of Maruzen

Maruzen, the historical stationer of Tokyo, opens the Spring pen season in this city with the Maruzen World Fountain Pen in early March. This year this event celebrates its 10th edition, at the time of the 150th anniversary of Maruzen company. For the occasion, a limited edition pen hit the market together with some other commemorative stationeries.

Maruzen is largely responsible for the introduction of the fountain pen in Japan. Maruzen did so by importing this novelty writing tool from Britain and the US in the beginning of the twentieth century. Maruzen soon started selling some of those same pens –mostly Onoto and Waterman-- under its own brands like Zenith, Albion and Orion.

It took a bit longer for Maruzen to manufacture its own pens. The domestic production relied on the works of Sakasai Eisaburô, who by 1925 was working exclusively for Maruzen.

The Athena Renaissance 85 corresponds to this period. It was initially marketed in 1934. This is a lever filler made of ebonite with a 14 K gold nib.


Athena Renaissance 85, from 1934. A Sakasai Eisaburô manufacture.

Sakasai passed away in 1937 and Maruzen took over his factory to continue with the production of its own pens.

The factory, located in Shinagawa (Tokyo) was destroyed during the war, and a new plant in Katsushika (Tokyo) was built. Here, new pens showed up in the market in the early 1950s. Such is the case of the second pen—an urushi coated ebonite pen with a lever filler and a 14 K gold nib. It carries the JIS engraving issued by the Ministry of Industry in 1952-53 on fountain pens.


Another lever filler--a post war pen from around 1955.

A third example is the pen in the “Ultra” fashion initiated by the Pilot Super Ultra of 1959 (::1::, ::2::, ::3::). On this case, the pen was released in 1964. It is an aerometric filler, with a 14 K gold nib and a generous decoration on the section, where the brand “ATHENA” is imprinted.


An Athena pen from 1964. Its original price was JPY 2500.

The in-house production of pens ended in the 1970s, and for some time the brand Athena was limited to the Maruzen inks.


Athena ink by mid 1960s. Athena Ace.

Maruzen's fountain pens resurfaced in 1994 through a collaboration with Pilot. Since then, Athena pens are Pilot pens in disguise, often implementing size #10 nibs. The Athena Basic Line (ca 2003) follows that idea.


The Athena Basic Line, from around 2004. It has an obvious similarity with the Pilot Custom Heritage 912, from 2009, with which the Basic Line shares the nib.

The 150th anniversary Athena pen has a shape that is very dear to Maruzen. This is the “Onoto type” (albeit in the quite personal Maruzen style)—a very cylindrical pen with a thinner barrel end where to post the cap. This pen also implements a size #10 Pilot nib, and the well-known converter CON-70. This edition is limited to 500 units, and its price is JPY 45000, plus taxes.


The "Athena the Pen" made for the 150th anniversary of Maruzen. Its retro packaging is particularly attractive. Photo courtesy of FudeFan. On his blog you can find a more detailed description of this pen.

So, after 150 years, Maruzen seems alive and well, and its main shop in Nihonbashi is one of the basic references for stylophiles in Tokyo. Should Maruzen make its own pens, the situation would be even better, but that might be asking too much.


My thanks to FudeFan.


Iwase Seisakusho, prototype with Henckel nib – Takeda Jimuki Hisoku

Bruno Taut
Chiyoda, March 11th, 2019
etiquetas: Maruzen, Pilot, Japón, Tokyo, papelería

8 comments:

Brian said...

Thanks for another illuminating post as always! I have a rather esoteric question about Athenas that I wonder if you could help with:

I have what I assume to be a 92CC by this catalog (https://ameblo.jp/kamisama-samasama/entry-12180180791.html), in that it looks like the pictured 82CC but is an eyedropper rather than a lever filler. It has an Athena Clip z-clip (rather than the earlier riveted type), and is marked "Athena the Pen/Maruzen Co Ltd/Made in Japan" on the barrel. Unfortunately, the nib has been replaced with one of those Special Iridiums that always like to crop up at the worst moments.

I also have a Maruzen's Athena 14k nib much like those in the linked catalog, but sitting in a pen marked "Maruden Fountain Pen" with a New Clip. So after all that introduction - does the Athena nib belong in the Maruden, or can I pull it out with no regrets and stick it into my Athena? I am not aware of any non-Athena Maruzen pens (save for those you mentioned in your post), but then there are a lot of things I'm not aware of.

Bruno Taut said...

Brian,

It is very hard to say anything out of your words without any picture and without touching the pens you mentioned.

It seems that Athena pens were well labeled--clip, body, nib... New Clip was a brand name used by Fukunaka Seisakusho. This company made some pens (branded as Ford and Arabian), but mostly supplied parts for other companies. "Maruden"? That does not sound good...

Thanks for your nice words.

BT

Anonymous said...

Bruno, thank you for such an informative post. Knowing the back history on Athena branding makes "Athena the Pen" so much more enticing!

Bruno Taut said...

Thanks, Anonymous, for your comments. I am happy to know my texts are of interest.

Cheers,

BT

Z said...

I have a sneaking suspicion, and I could be wrong - that the renaissance 85 and the pens from the kamisama post Brian linked above (https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/1009458942) were are all made by Pilot. I have no hard evidence to back this up, other than the fact that the pens just look strikingly similar. From the proportions of the section to the threads, the nib text / layout & geometry are similar - as well as the fact that Pilot released R type designs heavily inspired by the (kamisama linked) Maruzen line about 3-5 years later in 1937-9. Pilot also had an export R type with a gold crown like the Maruzens.

Both companies were powerhouses at the time - it felt so natural for Pilot to make modern Maruzens... why not then? I know this goes against conventional knowledge, but I can't help shaking the thought. It seems like they made their own pens in the 40s-70s but could it be possible that they worked with Eisaburo on small collaborations and special requests in the 20s-30s, forming a connection that would lead to ownership of the factory - all while Pilot would produce their main line in the mid 30s?

Bruno Taut said...

Thanks for your comment, Z.

It is of course possible, but we need more than that. I find the Renaissance 85 much thinner that the Pilot pens of the time, and the hypothesis of Eisaburo working for Maruzen and Maruzen buying his operation at his death are well documented. Now, collaborations? Yeah...

I know of some Pilot-made pens for other companies at that time --1920s-1930s--, particularly for department stores. They carry both names--Pilot AND the name of the store.

Anyway, yours is an interesting proposition.

Cheers,

BT

Z said...

I recall a grey/blue celluloid #6 made for Matsuya that was almost certainly a Pilot, with all Matsuya branding. I only saved these photos but the body had a Matsuya imprint that had similar text to the Namiki Torii logo imprints.

https://imgur.com/a/B4EA5js

I think the use of the Pilot double band on the Athena's is what tripped me up (I now realize I linked a YJ listing instead of the Maruzen catalog in my last comment https://ameblo.jp/kamisama-samasama/entry-12180180791.html). But as you said, it can only be a secondary possibility.

30s dept store collaborations are some of my favorites. Specifically Pilot Matsuzakaya's!

Alan Marshall said...

I have one of the Athena like the pen in the third picture (made in 1964 originally selling for Y2500) however, mine has a Sailor converter. Is there any more information available about this pen? It writes beautifully smooth.

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