Nakaya
Nakaya Long Cigar Nanten Karakusa
Nakaya Long Cigar Nanten Karakusa
Nanten (Sacred bamboo, Nandina) seed has purifying effects and is said to be good for back pain. The sound "Nanten" can be written in other Chinese characters which then means "reverse bad luck", and therefore it is popular to be used for good luck.
Here on the Nakaya Long Cigar, Nanten is painted in the Karakusa design with platinum powder and colored urushi lacquer.
Maki-e, literally "sprinkled powder," is a general term for the process by which figurative or abstract designs are created by sprinkling pigment or metallic powder onto the surface of Urushi lacquer while it is still wet. There are many varieties of Maki-e, such as Tame-sukashi, Raden, and Chinkin.
Platinum undercoating: A type of "Ji-maki" (undercoating) where platinum is sprinkled on the whole surface. There are also gold undercoatings and silver undercoatings.
Tsuke-gaki: A type of Maki-e technique. Paint with sticky urushi lacquer and sprinkle powder on it.
Behind the autograph, the serial number "One" is painted. Nanten (Nandina) pattern is painted with Maki-e inside the cap.
The heavy decorative rice paper outer box, simple solid softwood shipping inner box and fabric pouch make a lovely presentation for this Nakaya Urushi pen. Sensible and elegant packaging are a hallmark of Nakaya presentations.
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Customization Guide
Stub
 
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Above is the same size nib after a regrind to Stub. A regrind to Stub is often a good place to start for your first customization. Â A Stub nib provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes while writing, and is less position-sensitive on the paper than the crisper and slightly more demanding cursive italic.
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Cursive Italic
 
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More demanding, but also providing crisper edges and more line-width variation, is the very popular customization to Cursive Italic. This also provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, but is also more position-sensitive in terms of how the pen is held and requires more skill on the part of the user. This is a common customization for artists and calligraphers, but is still smooth enough to make for a good everyday writer.
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Formal Italic
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Formal Italic is an even crisper and more demanding customization than either cursive italic or left oblique, and is usually utilized for calligraphy and by the most experienced users. This provides broad down-strokes and narrow cross-strokes, with even crisper corners and edges than a cursive italic - this is an extremely position-sensitive customization.
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Left Oblique
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 Commonly used for signatures and correspondence, the Left Oblique customization provides broad diagonal strokes and narrow cross-strokes, and like a cursive italic, is more position-sensitive and demanding than a stub. The whole pen must be rotated to the left in order to write smoothly, without skipping. The "Left" in Left Oblique refers to the cut of the nib itself, and does not refer to the handedness of the writer. |
Architect's Point (Also for Arabic and Hebraic writing)
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A more exotic regrind is that to Architect’s Point. Named after the style of writing used by Frank Lloyd Wright, this regrind is the opposite of cursive italic, and provides for broad cross-strokes and narrow down-strokes. This also tends to be a particularly useful customization for those practicing Arabic or Hebraic calligraphy. |
Spencerian
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Perhaps our most popular customization, but also one of the most advanced, the Mottishaw Spencerian Customization has gained special attention from being featured in a customer's YouTube video which has now received over twelve million views! The Spencerian starts from a semi-soft 14k nib and adds additional flex and a regrind to needlepoint to create a specialized writing point used for copperplate calligraphy. For more details, visit our special Spencerian page.. |