[HN Gopher] The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967
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The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967
Author : apokryptein
Score : 166 points
Date : 2025-03-03 16:51 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (notes.stlartsupply.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (notes.stlartsupply.com)
| tocs3 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| bayindirh wrote:
| 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.
| luqtas wrote:
| one literally can raise the same points about a running text-
| editor and a keyboard with 'Silent Mode/Do Not Disturb'
| activated, except the timeless argument as we don't have even
| 200 years of electronic computers... have you ever tried to be
| productive by sharing letters in a mailling list when
| brainstorming ideas? /s
|
| and don't come up with research comparing the 2 with biases
| like participants not even knowing how to touch-type or that
| variable not even being mentioned
| WalterBright wrote:
| Taking notes with a keyboard does not work for me.
| bayindirh wrote:
| OK. I'll come with another research, the one I'm doing on
| myself for more than 30 years.
|
| See, I'm both typing and writing for more than 30 years, and
| I started doing both almost the same time, so there's no
| inherent bias there. Here's what I found.
|
| - I can type around 75 WPM in a good day, yet writing on
| paper always brings out clearer ideas.
|
| - I write my blog posts in iA writer, fullscreen and in DnD
| mode, yet drilling some ideas on paper is still necessary for
| reflection.
|
| - I have encrypted diary on my personal computer, yet I
| always prefer to carry a good notebook with a good pen, and
| find that I can write more sincerely and drill into myself
| better during reflection sessions.
|
| - I can design programs in my head, brainstorm with mind
| maps, or draw architecture diagrams with relatively high
| speeds, yet designing on paper always results in better
| architectures, less bugs, and better performance.
|
| - I can skirmish in real time like an old IRC person (because
| I am), or fire salvos of posts with different amount of flame
| included (because I lived through newsgroups), yet I prefer
| elaborating ideas on paper or in silence before writing them,
| because seeing what I want to say, and scribbling them with a
| good pen always brings different perspectives.
|
| What I found by working on myself is ironically parallel to
| the research you denounce. Writing is different than typing
| and is a deeper experience with more connection to self.
| Having a small notebook around boosts my productivity 5x,
| while reducing planning overhead and mental load incurred by
| it to almost zero, and this is while I have a tool which I
| plan my next three weeks with great detail.
|
| So, maybe you should try writing, and while you're at it, you
| can even find a pen friend which spends a couple of hours to
| write you a nice and sincere letter, and you'll do the same
| and understand why some of us like writing and everything
| related to that.
|
| Who knows?
| luqtas wrote:
| i remember burning a pile, like 15 cm thick, of paper notes
| once. i still have another one but i didn't parsed to the
| computer yet
|
| you don't know how sacred to me is my _scratch_ (temporary)
| file on Emacs or my org documents or Gimp files with stuff
| like studies of games platform level design (quite easy to
| screenshot views and highlight stuff i want to comment) or
| digital collages material
|
| for me there isn't anything closer than having a coffee
| after weeks/months without having one and going for a walk
| with or without a science podcast playing... ironically the
| last thing i did on paper was the tinker of specific apps
| layers layouts on my keyboard (now i use an online keyboard
| editor alongside a text document)
| hed wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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. :)
| GuB-42 wrote:
| 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.
| bayindirh wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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-...
| linguae wrote:
| My first PhD advisor was German, and he introduced me to
| LAMY pens. Everyone in our lab was given a hardcover
| notebook and a LAMY pen, and there were plenty of ink
| cartridges that we could use. I don't use fountain pens
| these days, preferring pencil instead, but I remember how
| nice those pens were.
|
| While I'm on the topic of German stationery, I regularly
| use my Staedtler eraser and pencil sharpener.
| tannhaeuser wrote:
| Yeah I never came across those Japanese products given the
| available German brands, of which there's also Staedtler,
| Faber-Castell, Stabilo, and Rotring, in addition to those
| already mentioned.
|
| If anything, I had thought Japan were known to produce fine
| markers/felt-tip pens.
| internet101010 wrote:
| I love my Platinum fountain pens far more than the Lamys or
| other European fountain pens. No matter how many times I try
| I always go back to the Platinum PTL-5000A, which has been
| discontinued (thankfully I got a backup).
| bayindirh wrote:
| It's a matter of taste, and that's OK. Platinum is a great
| brand, but it doesn't resonate with me much. Sailor's
| ProGear and Pilot is where my heart is when it comes to
| Japanese pens.
|
| On the other hand, I find entry level German pens great for
| everyday carry. They're _very_ rugged, and easy to replace,
| if you can damage them.
|
| I'm happy that you found your grail pen, because having one
| is a great feeling.
| WillAdams wrote:
| One of the reasons China does well with fountain pens is they
| nationalized the Parker pen factory at the beginning of the
| cultural revolution.
| redwall_hp wrote:
| 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.
| CocaKoala wrote:
| Pilot Precise V2 got me through grad school and when I
| started journaling recently, a set of those was the first
| thing I went and picked up. Great pens.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > * Pilot Precise V2
|
| I've only ever heard of V5 (0.5 mm) and V7 (0.7 mm), and
| Googling doesn't turn up a V2. Is there one, or was this a
| typo?
| fransje26 wrote:
| > Pilot G2 is my "minimum" pen, though I vastly prefer roller
| ball pens
|
| Do you have any roller ball pens you recommend? I love my G2,
| but it does have the tendency to "leak" from time to time..
| fallinditch wrote:
| I love the Leuchturm 1917 A4 Master Notebook with a dotted grid
| but the smaller B5 dotted grid notebook from Japan, the Maruman
| 104 Mnemosyne, is also perfect and easier to travel with.
| ics wrote:
| This article reminded me of another great website which sadly has
| been offline for several years now. Thankfully it seems to be
| pretty well archived.
|
| Leadholder - The Drafting Pencil Museum:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20170617140127/http://leadholder...
|
| Example:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20160629142925/http://leadholder...
| andrewla wrote:
| The problem with most modern pencils that I've found is that the
| leads are ever-so-slightly off-center, so a sharpened pencil will
| often have a piece of wood very near the tip. From the pictures
| (I've never used one myself) in this article, these pencils are
| made to an excellent standard and the sharpened pencils look
| amazing.
|
| I'm far from a wood pencil connoisseur; I generally prefer
| mechanical pencils (specifically Pentel Sharp; the P205 is a
| beast), but in buying pencils for my kids I've found this to be a
| consistently annoying issue.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I finally ran out of my 'retro' blackwings and picked up a box
| of their revival. They are expensive ($2.50 a pencil in packs
| of 12) but the quality so far has been very consistent. Not
| sure I'd give them to my kids as likely as they would be to
| lose or destroy them, but you might consider them for yourself.
|
| For mechanicals I have a Rotring 600 and a Staedtler Mars
| Technico that is a billion years old.
| otherme123 wrote:
| Expensive pencils are one of those things that totally worth
| it. I use Faber-Castell pencil, eraser and sharpener, and
| while they are maybe double or triple the price of a cheap
| one, they last way longer than that because they do their
| job.
|
| I have sharpened a cheap pencil more than 3 cm at once
| because either the lead or the wood keep breaking.
| wantless wrote:
| I have used the "Mitsu-Bishi" 9800s (the green painted pencil
| with gold lettering in this article) for years: all sharpen to
| perfection. I like HBs, but love the 2Bs, which write as smooth
| as butter. This is the low tier pencil offering at about 50
| cents (US) each. I will never try high-end Unis; I can't afford
| to habituate myself to luxury with the volume I write.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| I like wood pencils, I buy Faber-Castell 2B, also HB. I use a
| small razor twist sharpener, not a crank sharpener. Haven't
| really noticed much of a problem with off-center lead. Haven't
| tried any Japanese pencils.
| FatChauncy wrote:
| I really like Japanese eraser-tipped office pencils. I was
| cleaning out a drawer the other day and was excited to find half
| a box of Mitsubishi 9850, a favorite of mine. They run about $8 a
| dozen, but I felt like I had stumbled on a treasure trove. Smooth
| writing, nice paint, well-centered leads, and a nice eraser on a
| ferrule that doesn't loosen up. A good woodcased pencil is a joy
| to write with.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| It's interesting seeing all the innovative writing products in
| Japan - feels like a totally different culture. I have to say
| though, in the age of phones and laptops, it's hard to make time
| to write things physically. It also just seems more painful (like
| for the hands). Still, I appreciate the design and thought that
| goes into Japanese pencils and pens.
| JadeNB wrote:
| > It also just seems more painful (like for the hands).
|
| If you're anything like me, that's the experience of writing
| with cheap pens and pencils, but finding the right grip for you
| can make writing a totally different experience. I don't write
| huge amounts on paper any more these days, so maybe my hand
| would start cramping up if I wrote voluminously, but I can
| easily take hours worth of notes without any trouble when using
| nice pens.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Have you tried a good-quality, light-weight fountain pen?
| fallinditch wrote:
| See also:
|
| In a world full of touchscreens, why do Japanese people love
| stationery? (blog post)
|
| https://hatsukoi.co.uk/blog/113-in-a-world-full-of-touchscre...
| linguae wrote:
| I love Japanese stationery. I prefer my Mitsubishi Hi-Uni pencils
| to even my Blackwings, which are also great pencils. I also love
| Kokuyo Campus notebooks, which I first started using 15 years ago
| when I was a research intern at Fujitsu Labs in Kawasaki, Japan.
| Every time I travel to Japan, I stock up on stationery.
|
| On a related note, I wish there were software companies that put
| as much attention to their software as companies like Mitsubishi
| and Kokuyo put into their stationery. There was some well-crafted
| software in the past; I have fond memories of ClarisWorks, and I
| also enjoyed using The Omni Group's software, particularly
| OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle. I also love the classic Mac OS and
| Jobs-era Mac OS X. Unfortunately, most software these days do not
| "spark joy" for me. In fact, I often have to deal with software
| that gets in my way, that nags me instead of gets out of my way.
|
| It's unfortunate that the economics of software makes it
| difficult to create Omni Group's-style companies.
| "Enshittification" seems to be the end result of successful large
| software companies. Also, it's hard for smaller proprietary
| software companies to compete against free, whether it's free-as-
| in-beer or FOSS. I love FOSS, but it's hard for developers to
| make a living writing FOSS unless they have strategies for
| monetizing the software, which sometimes leads to compromises
| that threaten to "enshittify" the software.
|
| I'd love to find a solution to this problem. I'd love to see more
| craftsmanship in software, but the economic incentives make
| pursuing such craftsmanship hard.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| > I wish there were software companies that put as much
| attention to their software as companies like Mitsubishi and
| Kokuyo put into their stationery.
|
| Mitsubishi refined its process by selling the same basic
| product for half a century. The software equivalent would be
| closer to the 'cat' command than Omni. We could go with curl or
| vi, or Notepad if we give more credit to Mitsubishi pencils on
| keeping up with modern materials.
|
| You'll note that Mitsubishi Pencils isn't producing a highly
| crafted extremely precise and delightful to use 3D mouse. They
| stuck to pencils and the day pencil demand will die the company
| will also die.
| julienchastang wrote:
| You know what is great about that blog post? The pictures. There
| is something so pleasing about those shallow depth of field
| macros of carefully laid out pencils and other stationary. (I
| found some of those items on Amazon, BTW.)
| wrp wrote:
| I have preferred Japanese stationery for decades, and while its
| overall quality is still the highest, I think its zenith is past.
| There is still innovation in areas, but most product lines are
| not as extensive as 20 years ago and some production has moved
| overseas with a slight decline in quality.
|
| Probably the decline is due to the shift to screen-based
| communication. Japanese companies could produce better (i.e. more
| expensive) products because their domestic market supported it.
| With the younger generation glued to their smartphones, there is
| much less use of traditional stationery products.
|
| I have a few drawers full of discontinued items that I've
| collected from eBay sales of old stock.
| fallinghawks wrote:
| My most treasured tools when I used to draw were Pentel 0.3
| sliding sleeve pencils, model PS523. The sleeve let me put a lot
| of pressure on a very fine lead without breaking. And of course
| the lead was wonderful to use, very smooth. B was the softest
| lead available in that diameter, so it was hard to get a really
| dark black, hence the need for pressure.
|
| I've bought a number of mechanical pencils since the model was
| discontinued and have been only disappointed. Few enough have the
| sliding sleeve, and on the few that do, the sleeve does not move
| at all smoothly. There may never be another pencil like it.
|
| For ink drawing I have a set of Sakura Pigma Micron pens in
| different widths, also a lovely tool, and for general writing,
| Uniball micros are my pen of choice.
|
| I think it's more than coincidence that all these are Japanese.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| I guess that the nature of their writing system has either
| driven both their artistic expressiveness and excellence of
| their writing accessories, or vice versa, but, regardless,
| their craftsmanship is outstanding and admirable.
|
| I, too, was a Uniball micro man until I switched to pencils and
| have been a Pentel Twist-Erase III man for a long time, indeed,
| with 2B lead instead of America's #2 standard. So smooth, and
| such a great eraser!
|
| [I also must make my usual recommendation for NHKOnline's
| videos, where they have many, many shows about traditional
| Japanese crafts. Our family's favorite is now called "Design
| Stories", where it used to be "Design Talks Plus". They
| interview famous Japanese designers of all kinds, including a
| couple of Manga and many graphic design folks, as well as some
| stationery shops and Washi paper producers, plus architects and
| potters. I've only seen a few less than excellent episodes, but
| they're all good in the least.]
| MrMcCall wrote:
| I know this post is about old-school wooden pencils, but, as a
| dedicated pencil pusher, I've got to tip my hat to my favorite
| pencil for the past, at least, 12 years: the Pentel Twist-Erase
| III mechanical pencils, in 0.5 and 0.7 (they also have a 0.9, but
| I don't use those).
|
| The key to these outstanding pencils is the perfectly fat eraser
| that is over an inch long. Its formulation is excellent (neither
| too hard nor too soft) so it erases superbly and lasts quite a
| time, and it has refills in packs of three that can sometimes be
| found in Office DepotMax.
|
| I must also suggest a lead softness/hardness of 2B, instead of
| the normal "Number 2 pencil lead" that is standard for test
| taking here in America. It glides onto the paper more smoothly
| and yet erases easily and mostly completely.
| yapyap wrote:
| Tombow HOMO
|
| that's definitely, a name choice
| buildsjets wrote:
| There is an FAA accepted test of paint film hardness that
| requires special calibrated pencils, available ONLY from
| Mitsubishi pencil company, in packages of 17 for $224. Each
| pencil comes with an individual certificate of calibration shows
| that it meet's it's specified hardness level. The test is ASTM D
| 3363, "Standard Test Method for Film Hardness by Pencil Test"
|
| https://www.gardco.com/Products/Hardness-Testers/Scratch-Har...
| WalterBright wrote:
| I've tried all kinds of pens, and my favorite by a wide margin
| are the TUL ones. It glides smoothly over the paper, doesn't
| groove it, no blotchy lines, no dried up ink in the pen problems.
|
| I use a pencil in the car because it always works.
|
| Pencil writing doesn't scan very well, so I don't use it for
| notes. TUL writing scans delightfully.
| thr0waway001 wrote:
| Those HOMOs are superior.
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(page generated 2025-03-03 23:00 UTC)