Nakaya
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Ayakashi
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Ayakashi
With a motif inspired by the work of iconic Edo period artist Katsushika Hokusai, the Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Ayakashi (""Apparition"") is a startlingly vivid work of Maki-e art which uses negoro technique for a clever trompe l'œil effect.
Shu-nurripanshi, also known as Shu Unpolished finish, provides the base lacquer layer for this pen, hand-painted in the traditional craft center of Wajima on the west coast of Japan. The Nakaya Naka-ai is only available through us here at nibs.com.
The Nakaya Naka-ai model, designed by nibs.com founder John Mottishaw in collaboration with Nakaya master designer Shinichi Yoshida, is considered by many to be the epitome of Nakaya style - with it's tapered design and superb balance, it has become a favorite with Nakaya users.
The pen is provided with your choice of Nakaya 14k solid gold nib, which can also serve as an excellent starting point for many of our exclusive nib customizations. Each pen purchase includes a softwood presentation box which includes a fabric pen kimono and starter pack of Platinum brand ink cartridges.
Many customers ask about the meaning of the kanji characters on the pen. The translation of 封印 is ""sealed"". The scroll is a talisman to seal the Ayakashi.
Each pen will be carefully inspected, tested, and adjusted to your personal writing characteristics in our workshop before shipping to you. We are an authorized Nakaya dealer.
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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. 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.. |