Major trends in Japan this year: Brands, events, and more. One new ink maker made a big splash. This post is part of a collaborative year-end summary by our Tokyo pen group.

Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) and pen club Wagner’s autumn event, in one weekend!

All sought-after store-exclusive Sailor inks, normally only sold in remote brick-and-mortar stores, finally available in Tokyo, for two days.

Gary is a fountain pen enthusiast from southern Japan with a knack for chemistry. A few years ago, he started experimenting with iron gall inks. This eventually led to a collaboration with Platinum, resulting in the Classic Ink series. He has also made inks for Pen Saloon and Wagner.

A few months ago, Gary published a few observations and lessons using iron gall inks in fountain pens, on his Japanese blog. Given his knowledge on the subject, and as iron gall ink safety is a question that often comes up on pen forums, I thought it was worth summarizing his findings in English.

The nib is fine! Don’t worry. In fact, it’s more than fine: It’s a Concord, by none less than grandmaster Yukio Nagahara (“Nagahara Junior”), who recently started his own business, The Nib Shaper. But let’s start from the beginning.

It was a busy weekend at Bungubox in Omotesando: Nagahara did nib grinding, Eboya had a small pop-up shop around the corner, and Ken Takeda (who recently appeared on The World Unknown To Matsuko to talk about ink) did “ink fortune-telling”.

Sailor has its Pro Gears, Pilot has Custom 91 and 912, and now PenBBS has model 352: Flat-top cartridge-converter pens with stylish clips. Modern-looking complements to classic, cigar-shaped models in their respective product lineups.

Model 352 is one of PenBBS’s two new releases in June (the other one being vac filler 268), and comes in a number of different acrylics and with several nib options. The one I got is called Galaxy, and has PenBBS’s new extra-fine or REF nib.

Yoseka Stationery is a stationery store in NY, founded in 2017 by a Taiwanese couple. Earlier this week, they sent one of their products, the Yoseka Notebook, for me to test.

For the last few days, I’ve been carrying and writing in this notebook. That also included bringing it to a pen meet where it encountered some of the wettest nibs around, such as music flex nibs by nib maniac @tokyostationpens.

Fine Writing International (FWI) is a Taiwanese pen maker and stationery store. In addition to their own production line pens, FWI produces exotic, one-off urushi creations, and imports and sells foreign brands (see Inkantadora’s video tour).

Until recently, FWI was relatively unheard of internationally. As late as May last year, when I got my first FWI pen, I had to order it directly from Taiwan, via email.

Pen Trading in Tokyo (ペントレ) is an annual pen show organized by “Pen Collectors of Japan”. It is arguably the place to find rare Japanese pens, and thus attended by some of the most dedicated collectors around. It is not just about vintage pens though.

This year’s show was the 19th. It was a three-day event, with the first day focused on presentations, paraphernalia, and Kakuno hacking, and the two remaining days on gold-nibbed pens, new and old.

Japan has a long tradition of urushi lacquerware, going all the way back to the Jomon period. Over the years, multiple regional forms such as Wajima-nuri and Kyo Shikki, and decorative techniques like maki-e and chinkin, have evolved.

Urushi is a time-consuming craft. Sap is extracted from the lacquer tree, filtered, often mixed with pigment such as vermilion, and painstakingly coated in many layers, on everything from rice bowls and trays to cars. This coating is not only decorative but has practical benefits, being durable and resistant to heat and moisture.