Nakaya
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Chinkin Housoge Black Gold
Nakaya Naka-ai Cigar Chinkin Housoge Black Gold
The Naka-ai Housoge Black and Gold fountain pen is not just a writing instrument but also a striking work of art. Each gold-filled line on this pen has been hand-engraved by a skilled Maki-e artist.
This Housoge fountain pen has been hand turned from naturally harvested hard rubber into our exclusive Naka-ai shape and then sent to the Wajima region on the west coast of Japan for the elaborate design application.
""Housoge"" has the poetic connotations of being a flower in the imagination, or a blossom in paradise. The arabesque patterns are typical of the Japanese Tenpyo period and can be seen on a number of Nakaya pen models and in several colors. Black urushi covers the cap and barrel of this fountain pen. The Maki-e artist then carves the Housoge motif using an extremely sharp burins employing the Chinkin technique. Gold powder is sprinkled on to fill the fine, narrow lines of the design, then the gold is sealed into place with yet another layer of clear urushi lacquer.
Nakaya pens can be filled with bottled fountain pen ink using the provided converter and can also use Platinum brand ink cartridges. Hand-painted Maki-e converters are also available.
14k nibs are well-suited to customizations including Stub, Cursive Italic, and Left Oblique, as well as the modification for added flex.
The engraved pattern continues even onto the crown of the cap and the gripping section on the barrel, highlighting Nakaya's attention to detail.
Nakaya pens are individually handcrafted in a process that requires a minimum of three to six months and often much longer.
Unless requested otherwise, each pen or nib you purchase from us will be carefully examined, tested, and optimized for your personal writing characteristics before it ships.
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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.. |