Nakaya
Nakaya Piccolo Writer Chinkin Housoge Shu Charcoal
Nakaya Piccolo Writer Chinkin Housoge Shu Charcoal
The adornment of this Piccolo fountain pen elevates it beyond utility. ""Housoge"" has the poetic connotations of being a flower in the imagination, or a blossom in paradise. The black in red Chinkin has a classic feel.
Chinkin is a technique in which a sharp instrument is used to cut the fine, narrow lines of a motif onto a lacquered surface. The lines are then filled in with a pigmented powder. This is another time-intensive and meticulous method - most of the pens seen here take five months or more to be created.
The name Piccolo comes from the smallest of the woodwind instruments, and in true form the Nakaya Piccolo Writer Housoge Shu with Charcoal Line fountain pen is one of the shortest of the Nakaya Urushi pens. With its elegant red finish and engraved floral motif, this writer adds a new level of craftsmanship to the classic Piccolo model.
The base color of the pen is bright red ""Shu"" and line is black charcoal. An artist engraves a motif by Wajima unique ""Chinkin"" technique on the lacquer surface. After that, an artist imbeds ""Sumi"" charcoal in the lines.
Swirls of vines and flowers dance along the entire length of the cap and barrel. The Housoge floral pattern has its origins in the Tenpyo period, 729-749 CE, during which time Buddhism was becoming an officially recognized state religion in Japan. The Housoge represents an idealized hybrid ""flower in paradise"" as envisioned by the Pure Land Buddhism of the period.
The Nakaya Piccolo Writer can be filled with bottled fountain pen ink using the provided converter. Nakaya pens can also use Platinum brand ink cartridges. Hand-painted Maki-e converters are also available.
A gold clip allows you to easily affix this writing instrument to a shirt pocket, with its intricate design showing just enough over the pocket top to pique others' curiosity.
The Nakaya Piccolo Writer Housoge Shu with Charcoal Line fountain pen comes standard with your choice of solid gold 14k single-tone nib. 14k nibs are well-suited to customizations including Architect's Point, Stub, Cursive Italic, and Left Oblique, as well as the modification for added flexibility.
The floral design even continues onto the gripping section, demonstrating Nakaya's renowned attention to detail.
Decorative rice paper, a simple solid softwood shipping box decorated with Japanese Kanji script, 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.
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.. |