Nakaya
Nakaya Neo Standard Ascending Dragon Ao-tamenuri
Nakaya Neo Standard Ascending Dragon Ao-tamenuri
The Nakaya Neo Standard Ascending Dragon Ao-tamenuri fountain pen, formerly known as the Blue Dragon, utilizes a unique new Urushi lacquer mix in blue-green to create a memorable variation on this popular motif. Tame-Sukashi technique adds layer of clear Urushi over the hand-painted dragon, resulting in a stunning portrait of a dragon that will ""ascend"" with time.
The response to this new design has been highly enthusiastic. One of our customers says, ""This is the best shape that Nakaya has ever made."" It only comes as a Writer, with a clip.
As always, this Nakaya pen body is made from hand-turned ebonite hard rubber which is then layered with Urushi lacquer in the Wajima region of Japan.
Though the full range of Nakaya nibs is made available, the rhodium-plated version shown here matches the cool blue-green Ao-tamenuri finish.
The ebonite hard rubber used for Nakaya pen bodies is itself the product of an artisanal work process, and is hand created using natural materials harvested from the rubber gum tree.
The dragon motif will become more prominent over time as the Urushi lacquer ages and becomes more transparent. You can see the excellent attention to detail the artist has employed, carefully crafting each scale of the dragon and each curl of the claw.
Nakaya pens can be filled with bottled ink using the provided converter and can also use Platinum brand ink cartridges. Hand-painted Maki-e converters are also available.
Decorative rice paper, a simple solid softwood shipping box decorated with Japanese Kanji script, a starter box of Platinum ink cartridges, and a fabric pen ""kimono"" are all included with this pen, making it a lovely presentation item. Sensible and elegant packaging has long been a hallmark of the Nakaya brand.
Nakaya pens are individually handcrafted in a process that requires a minimum of three to six months and often much longer. Consult our Nakaya Availability Chart, updated weekly, to see which pens we currently have in stock and available for immediate shipment, or simply to browse for pens by finish or motif.
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. See our nib set-up and optimization page for more details.
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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.. |