Nakaya
Nakaya Piccolo Cigar Housoge Kikyo-tamenuri Charcoal
Nakaya Piccolo Cigar Housoge Kikyo-tamenuri Charcoal
The Nakaya Piccolo Cigar Housoge Kikyo-tamenuri Charcoal fountain pen is created when an artist engraves the floral Housoge motif using the unique ""Chinkin"" technique on the Kikyo-tamenuri urushi lacquer surface.
The Piccolo is the one of the shortest of the Nakaya urushi pens. The name Piccolo comes from the smallest of the woodwind instruments. Shown here is the Piccolo Housoge Cigar (No Clip) in Kikyo-Tamenuri Charcoal (Blue-Black).
Its base color is the ""Kikyo"" (Blue) urushi with Black urushi layered over and engraved with the Housoge design.
It is just big enough to fit easily in a large hand without posting the cap.
This simple elegant shape, with its turned tapered pyramidal cap and smooth transition between the cap and barrel, is an exercise in spare design.
""Housoge"" is a flower in the imagination; a blossom in paradise.
Similar to the Palmet flower, it is assumed a magnificent flower pattern, and a kind of typical arabesque pattern of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Japanese Tenpyo period.
The Nakaya nib, imprinted Nakata, the family name of the manufacturer is made of solid 14K gold. Each of these nibs is suitable for our customization to extra flexible. The medium and broad tip can be customized by us into cursive italic, stub or oblique points.
The carved motif is featured not only on the cap and barrel, but also the gripping section.
The heavy decorative rice paper, simple solid softwood shipping box and fabric pouch make a lovely presentation for Nakaya urushi pens. Sensible and elegant packaging have been a hallmark of Nakaya.
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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.. |