Tokyo Pen Scene in 2019

The 19th edition of the Pen Trading event in Tokyo was celebrated on the weekend of May 4th at the KFC building in the district of Sumida. And for the first time, this event lasted three days.

But all in all the figures of the show have not changed much along recent years—about 20 to 25 traders, and 200 visitors. And these numbers hardly justify such a long duration.

The first day, Friday 3rd, had Platinum as protagonist—Mr. Masa Sunami gave a lecture on the history of the brand, and the president –Mr. Nakata— answered some questions previously submitted by the attendees. However, the answers were to be kept strictly intramural, and any leak through social media was prohibited. Trading started at 12:30, albeit restricted to non-gold nib pens and assorted goods.

Saturday and Sunday were more of a traditional pen show –no restrictions of the type of pens to be on offer--, and were combined with a number of workshops.

Pen Trading in Tokyo, 19th edition.

Along this past year there has been a wealth of activities in the fountain pen world in Tokyo. The Wagner group has extended its events in order to attract younger aficionados, for instance. In October, the Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) worked well as a meeting point for aficionados previously disconnected, thus enlarging the pen community.

All this should imply that the trading events like that of Spring should become more important in the basic figures, but that was not the case ten days ago. The second edition of TIPS, to be celebrated in October 5th and 6th, looks like the best chance for the local activity to become something more according to the relevance of Japan in the international market.

And the only way to do so is to become more international.

So, next stop, the second edition of the Tokyo International Pen Show in October 5th and 6th. Hope to see you there.

Iwase Seisakusho prototype – Wagner 2008 ink

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, May 9th 2019
etiquetas: Tokyo, Japón, evento, mercado

TIPS 2019. Again a Stationery Fair

This past weekend, the second edition of the Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) took place in the Ward of Taito in Tokyo. I attended it and these are my reflections.

The plain figures are very clear and straight-forward: about 2000 visitors, 1200 on the first day; about 200 foreigners; 86 tables with 71 traders. This means a big success and a significant improvement over the results of 2018: 1600 visitors and 50 traders.

People and inks. Are those the argument of TIPS?

My criticism this year is, in essence, the same as on 2018——this event was not a pen show, this was a stationery salon (like some others in Tokyo: Bungujoshi, Kamihaku, and Inkunuma (::1::, ::2::)) where you could find some fountain pens. Vintage pens, on their side, were limited to four or five tables——Wagner group, Seoul Pen Show, Andre Mora, Stylus Aurea, and Pen Land/Komehyo. And not even the parallel Wagner meeting on Sunday at a different venue, could correct this deficiency.

The table of the Seoul Pen Show with some vintage pens.

However, this didn't mean that there were no fountain pens. Many of the traders were well established stationers from all over Japan who have their own special pen models and inks, mostly made by Sailor. This was the case of BunguBox, Kingdom Note, Nagasawa, Ei-Publishing Co. (Shumi-no Bungubako)… And in fact there is a demand for all those somehow different pens—if only because of their colorful decoration.

This prevalent presence of Sailor –even if indirect-- made Leigh Reyes say that this was the pen show of Sailor. The presence of the other two big companies was marginal.

Sailor inks, Sailor pens. Kingdom Note.

The international presence was more important this year: Franklin-Christoph, Schon, Yaching Style, Armando Simoni Club, Andre Mora, Stylus Aurea, Aesthetic Bay... But they accounted to just about 10% of the traders.

Aesthetic Bay, from Singapore.

Franklin-Christoph, from USA.

All in all, the most interesting aspect of the show was, as is often the case, the community of users. On this edition, and much to my surprise, the number of visitors coming from overseas was particularly big. Organizers speak of 10% of the attendees being foreigners. That means about 200 people. I don't know how they came with this number, but I am afraid they considered any long term resident in Japan as foreign visitor. Anyway, this edition attracted visitors from Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, United States, Canada, France, Italy, Spain... This fact is indeed remarkable and contributed to provide a cosmopolitan air to an otherwise very parochial show.

An active and enthusiastic group of foreign visitors.

TIPS is not a pen show, and TIPS is barely international. But 2000 visitors move a lot of money and are a powerful argument not to change the business model.

At the end, the stationery market is a lot more important and lucrative than that of fountain pens.

Paper, paper, paper...

NOTE: TIPS 2020 will take place on November 7th and 8th in Hamamatsucho area in Tokyo.


My thanks a Inktraveler for several of the pictures here included.

Parker 51 Demi 1948 – Kobe Nagasawa Bokko

Bruno Taut
Nakano, October 8th 2019
etiquetas: mercado, evento, Sailor, Tokyo, papelería

Craftsman

Last Sunday (June 20th), the monthly Wagner association Pen Clinic took place. As in previous occasions, lots of magnificent fountain pens gathered in there, together with their happy owners.

Today’s report will focus only on one pen: Mr. Yamada’s tuned Pelikan M800. On a first look, it appears to be a regular green stripped M800 with a BB nib.

It writes very smoothly, and is very wet. But that is usually the case with these Birds and, more particularly, with thick nibs.

But if looked sideways to the nib, things start to change:

The nib is, say, two-folded.

Mr. Yamada is an expert in tuning nibs in order to make them to perform in new ways. Most of his creations have the purpose of making them a lot more flexible. He drills holes here and there weakening the structure of the nib.

Junior 14 K gold Sailor nib with two drills on the sides to increase the flexibility. Note also the enlargement of the breathing hole to add more ink flow (by letting air in) to cope with the increased demand of ink.

This time, he opted for making a very broad nib with a big flux to cope with that big demand of ink.

Sure enough, this nib reminds of those wonderful creations by Sailor nibmeister Mr. Nagahara.

The next Wagner Pen Clinic will be celebrated on July 25th, Sunday, at the usual venue.

(Soennecken 110 – Waterman Florida Blue)

Bruno Taut
(Inagi, June 21, 2010)
[labels: Pelikan, plumín, evento, Sailor, Tokyo]

2-Fold Nibs

I cannot say for sure that it was Nibmeister Nobuyoshi Nagahara's idea on the first place, but certainly it was him who popularized the idea of two- and three-folded nibs with the support of Sailor.

Some early examples by him date back to the 1990s, as were reported on these pages.

An early Cross nib by Nobuyoshi Nagahara.

Those initial nibs later evolved into what we know today—open nibs with or without overfeed that made their way to the catalog of the brand and to commercial success.

Three generations of Cross nibs.

Then some nibmeisters copied this idea. Wagner-resident Yamada used Pelikan M800 as the base for his version.

Yamada's approach to a 2-fold nib-two overlapping Pelikan M800 nibs.

Wagner member Mr. Mochizuki, on his side, used a much more affordable canvas—a Chinese pen available at the 100-yen chain shop Daiso.

Mochizuki's approach based on a Daiso pen. A steel 2-fold nib.

Only recently, in the last couple of years, non-Japanese nibmeisters have attempted these two-fold nibs. The most brilliant of them, dare I say, is nib wizard Ralph Reyes of Regalia Writing Labs with his continuous development of old and new ideas. The nib here shows is a nice example of this—it is a cross-concord nib, in Sailor terms, with an overfeed; but the overfeed is made out of a third nib and is nicely integrated on the unit.

A 2-foold nib by Ralph Reyes based on JoWo #6 nibs.

My thanks to Inky.Rocks.


NOTE (16/January/2020): Writng samples of some of those nibs can be seen on the following Chronicle: https://estilofilos.blogspot.com/2020/01/2-fold-nibs-writing-samples.html

Opus 88 Koloro #6 – De Atramentis Beethoven

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, January 10th, 2020
etiquetas: Sailor, nibmeister Nobuyoshi Nagahara, Nibmeister Yamada, nibmeister Ralph Reyes, plumín, Mr. Mochizuki

Accidental?

Much to my surprise, my chronicle March Inks has received a lot of attention. That single entry increased the traffic to these texts by a factor of four or five for a couple of days. And fellow blogger Morgana claimed I had discovered these inks for the world—for the world outside Tokyo that is. Thanks, but hard to believe and, certainly, totally unintentional.

Even more so when my text took two weeks to be published: I learned about the Mix-free inks at the Wagner Pen Clinic in January 30th, and I finally published my chronicle on February 14th.

The 60 ml inkwell of the Mix-free range of inks.

However, at least one Japanese website –Office Magazine—had published some news as early as on January 26th on the Platinum event celebrated between January 25th and February 3rd at Itoya’s main shop in Ginza, Tokyo. Among other products, Platinum showed their new gamut of inks and demonstrated their mixing capabilities. But that text was only in Japanese—that obscure language spoken only by 130 million people…

The display table at Itoya's shop.

I wonder if all this unannounced presentation –unannounced, at least, for so many— was nothing but a marketing strategy by Platinum. I am sure nobody in the advertisement business ignores how fast news propagate nowadays through the Net. As Brian Goulet said on his Ink Nouveau site, it only takes a cell phone to make breaking news a couple of seconds after the event had taken place.

The objects of desire.

In actual terms, this presentation has raised a lot of expectation among pen enthusiasts, as can be seen on fora (I, II, III). Will this translate into sales? Most likely so, I am afraid.

The question, anyway, remains open: was this strategy accidental or deliberate?

And on a coming text, I will discuss about the actual necessity to have nine inks to mix.

(Twsbi Diamond 530 with a Pilot 5 nib – Sailor Yama-dori)

Bruno Taut
(Madrid, February 18th, 2011)
[labels: Platinum, mercado, evento, tinta]

Old Trick

Some brands, Pilot among them, might be approaching the ink business as if ink were perfume. And in fact, ink and perfume are not that different—both are easy-to-make consumables, yet so flexible in the final outcome, in color or fragrance, as to allow wildly creative names and displays. The basic difference, though, is that cosmetics sell seduction and sexual appeal, and inks have not yet reached that far.

There is another difference: inks need of a tool to be used—the pen. Then, pen brands came with this fundamental lie: only our inks are good for our pens. With other inks our pens might not work; with other inks the guarantee will be void; with other inks the pen will break; with other inks…

"Joker ink for fountain pens Joker".

Even the mostly unknown brand Joker tried this trick, which is frankly strange. Not many Joker pens can we see in the hands of users and collectors. Therefore, the market for its inks –"Joker ink for fountain pens Joker"– might have been quite limited.

Anyway, we know now this is an old lie in the hands of pen companies. But pen novices still ask about it on pen fora.

My thanks to my friend Kostas.

Pilot G-300V – Wagner 2008 ink

Bruno Taut
August 24th, 2012
etiquetas: tinta, Joker, mercado

Transitional or Else

ADDENDUM (July 14th, 2012)

There are several corrections to be made to this text:

1. This pen is not a frankenpen. Save the logo on the barrel –the N encircled by the lifebuoy— everything matches the date engraved on the nib—1950. That is especially correct for the filling system.

2. This pen is not an eyedropper, as I mistakenly said. It implements the A-shiki (A-式), a pulsated plunger filler, system developed by Pilot in the late 1940s.

More information on the chronicle entitled A-shiki (A-式) of July 14th, 2012.


1938 was the year in which Namiki Manufacturing Company Ltd. changed its name to Pilot Fountain Pen Company Ltd., and, at the time, the letter N of the logo –the N encircled by the lifebuoy— was replaced by a P. So, this detail was an easy element to date a Pilot pen. Or so the theory went. But there are also anomalies.

The pen, capped. Note the modern looking clip.

Today’s pen is a Pilot made of green celluloid. The filling system is eyedropper with a sealing valve manned by a metallic knurled tail knob. As was the case for a previously described Pilot, the knob thread is cut on the inner side of the barrel.

The pen, open. The engraving on the barrel reads as follows: "PILOT / THE PILOT PEN (N logo) MFG. CO. / MADE IN JAPAN". That on the nib says "STANDARD / PILOT / -<3>- / MADE IN / JAPAN". The date stamp is engraved on the reverse.

Another interesting feature is the structure of the sealing device. This time rod connected to the tail knob has a plastic sheath that actually seals the ink deposit to the section. This sheath can be removed from the rod when the barrel is detached from the section, as can be seen on the pictures.

On the left hand side, the metallic knob shows its thread. It screws on the barrel by means of a thread cut on the inner wall. On the right hand side, the sheath that actually seals the ink deposit.

The sheath, in yellowish plastic, connected to the section.

The pen, according to the sticker, cost JPY 150, and it shows that the pen belonged to some time after the Second World War. But the engraving on the barrel shows an N in the lifebuoy as the logo. The pen clip also shows some more modern design, similar to that in the Pilor Super series from the late 1950s, that departs from the usual clips in pre-war pens. The nib, finally, provides key information: it was manufactured on April 1950 (450).

The pen, disassembled.

The, what do we have here? Some would say that this is a frankenpen made up of different parts from different times. But the only anachronic sign is the logo on the barrel. The rest –price, nib, sheath in the sealing valve, clip, metallic knob— are consistent with the nib date of 1950. A frankenpen is no longer such is that was the way it went out of the assembly line, and in making this pen Pilot might have used old parts —the barrel— still available at those times of scarcity.

All this is mostly speculation, and no certain answer can we now conclude other than dating the nib, just the nib, in 1950.

These are the dimensions of this pen:

Diameter: 13 mm.
Length closed: 131 mm.
Length open: 120 mm.
Length posted: 157 mm.
Weight (dry): 16.5 g.

Pilot Custom Heritage 91 – Wagner red-black ink

Bruno Taut
June 16th, 2012
etiquetas: Pilot

Knock

The Platinum Knock-18 is one of those mysterious fountain pens. The books say it existed, you can even see some pictures of it in the Internet, but it is quite unlikely to run into it for real.

The Platinum Knock 18.

Last Sunday, at the monthly Wagner Pen Clinic I had the chance to put my hands in one of them.

The Knock 19 compared to the 1965 Pilot Capless model. The later, in red, is about 1 cm longer.

The push buttons are totally different. While the Pilot has a relatively small button entering the barrel, in the Platinum pen, the whole barrel is the button.

Transparent feeders on both nibs. Platinum nib moves further out from the section than Pilot's.

The openings for the nibs. Both are closed when the pen is not in use, although that cannot be seen on the pic.

Pilot marketed its first Capless model in 1963 at a whooping price of JPY 6000, which could be something in the order of JPY 60000 nowadays. Given the limited success, a JPY 3000 version was released the following year –aiming at students, some sources say— and it became a real success. Platinum then made its own model –this Knock 18— trying to take benefit of the new trend. This model was short-lived due to patent infringement issues.

My thanks to Mr. Niikura, who allowed me to inspect his never inked pen.

(Platinum 3776 music nib – Sailor Red Brown)

Bruno Taut
Inagi, August 31, 2010
labels: Pilot, evento, Platinum

Nib Questions

The Súper T ads in the 1940s and 1950s spoke of twenty different possible nibs for its pens. The Kaweco Sport in the 1930s had the option of twelve different nibs including three Kugel (sphere) points.

Súper T ad from 1948. On the left hand side it reads that there are 20 different nibs available for this pen with "everlasting guarantee". Advertisement collected by Grafopasión member Claudio.

In 1934 the Kaweco Sport could have up to twelve different nibs. Image taken from the Kaweco website (December 2010).

Those are only two examples of the wealth of nib possibilities in former times. Nowadays, the options are mostly reduced to the typical F, M and B triad, and, if anything else, some oblique nibs catering the snobbish rather than any real writing need. The main exception to this observation are the big three Japanese companies and their interesting nib catalog.

Cross nib by Sailor. My thanks to Mr. Noguchi, of the Wagner Association in Japan. Some other nibs by Sailor can be seen on the British Sailor website.

Three music nibs by two Japanese companies: Platinum on the top, and Pilot on sizes 5 and 10. Platinum's nib selection is a lot more reduced than Pilot's. Its sister company Nakaya has some additional points, including a stub.

Now I wonder what the real reasons for this were. Is it just a matter of supply and demand? Might it be a result of pens being more of a collectible object than a real writing tool?

I have no answers. I do know, however, that I find fewer and fewer interesting features in modern pens and, consequently, I turn my face to vintage pens.

(Kaweco AL-Sport – Waterman Havana)

Bruno Taut
(In exile, December 18th, 2010)
[labels: Kaweco, Japón, plumín, Súper T, fora]