The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967
10 comments
·March 3, 2025hed
Fascinating article. Seeing the "uni" and wondering if that was in fact the beginning of what we know as uni-ball was neat.
And since the authors' shop is local to me I'm going to have to go see what they've got!
bayindirh
If they also sell mechanical pencils, get a Zebra Drafix and Pentel PG-5, and maybe a Pentel Smash (aka Q1000) and/or Pentel 120 A3-DX.
You'll not be disappointed. :)
tocs3
We need more histories like this. History taught in school often seems so abstract and distant. Without the million little stories about the people that do things the political histories are little meaningless.
Mistletoe
I really feel like this with regard to monarchs. Most of them seem like homicidal inbred mentally ill people. Why are we studying and deifying them? Henry VIII? One of the absolute worst human beings to ever exist. Put him in the bin with Pol Pot.
Most of real history was a simple peasant working hard and making quiet decisions while avoiding being trampled by a king.
GuB-42
In general, I find Japan to be unmatched when it comes to stationery. Pens, pencils, notebooks, etc... Everything is just better: the simple stuff, like what you can find in "konbini" and "100 yen shops", entire floors in department stores like "Hands", and all the way up to luxury. As you might expect, Japanese brands of stationery are popular worldwide.
So it is not surprising that Japan had a golden age of pencils, and that you can still buy the products today and that they are still the best.
redwall_hp
I exclusively use Japanese writing implements, and hand-wrote all of my notes when I was in college. (Saved carrying a laptop around, and some professors were sticklers about not having laptops out during lectures.)
* Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen and Namiki ink
* Pilot G2 is my "minimum" pen, though I vastly prefer roller ball pens.
* Uniball Air Micro
* Pilot Precise V2
* When I need a pencil, I use the Uni Kuru Toga, a mechanical pencil that slowly rotates the lead to keep it sharp. Before that, I used the Pilot pencils that use the G2 body.
* Recently, I ordered a Metacil "infinity pencil" out of curiosity. It's an aluminum pencil with a very dense tip that writes like an ordinary pencil, but is supposed to last a very long time.
bayindirh
They are very good at higher end paper, pencils and erasers. Their gel and roller pens are mostly unmatched.
OTOH, while they're top tier in fountain pens, Germans really equal with them. Lamy, Faber Castell, Diplomat, Kaweco and of course Montblanc make great pens. Pilot & Sailor are not behind them, though. Mitsubishi Pencil bought Lamy so things will get interesting.
Inks are the same. Germans and Japanese are head to head. OTOH, except Leuchttrum and Rhodia, I can't find many fountain pen first papers from Europe.
Funnily, when it comes to fountain pens, there's another interesting contender. China. While they copy most of the stuff, their domestic brands make great pens and ink.
Also, a company in my country started making a paper which rivals Yu-Sari and Tomoe River. I write letters with it, and it's great.
nadir_ishiguro
I'm from Germany and personally prefer Japanese fountain pens, but also value our local brands.
I took for granted that I could go into any small stationary store and buy a LAMY or Pelikan any time I wanted as a child.
"Also, a company in my country started making a paper which rivals Yu-Sari and Tomoe River. I write letters with it, and it's great."
Is that available internationally?
bayindirh
I keep a stable of inked pens. The set is half Japanese, half German all the time. I find Lamy superior for leak resistance and ruggedness, and they're repairable if you manage to damage them also, their tipping is one of the best and fastest polishing/adapting ones if not the best. Japanese ones tend to stay at my desk at home, since they're more delicate writing instruments (except Pilot Metropolitan.That's a tank), but I enjoy them all the same, regardless of their price points and materials.
BTW, if you have not tried Montblanc's Royal Blue give it a chance. That one is "different". Also Scrikss's blue black ink is nice.
The notebook using this paper is called Meteksan Prestige [0]. I don't know if they're exported or not.
[0]: https://www.sarikalem.com/en/meteksan-prestij-bloknot-17x24-...
In the age of digital data storage and keyboards, these writing tools do not get the attention and celebration they deserve.
There are tools so unique that really changes how you think and how you write. Some of these tools are so timeless and they are irreplaceable.
When you acquire one of these tools, and appreciate all the craftsmanship and engineering went into these things, and notice how all blends and becomes invisible, you realize that that simple thing is not that simple in the end.
I'm very grateful that the great papers, pens and all these supplies are still made, albeit in smaller varieties and numbers since the demand is lower than before. But, nothing replaces a silent thinking session on a good paper with good set of writing utensils. No notifications, no indirections, nothing. Just directly projecting your thoughts to a medium which has no batteries, encryption, etc.
Very personal, and much more productive.