Nakaya
Nakaya Portable Cigar Chinkin Housoge Kikyo-Tamenuri Charcoal
Nakaya Portable Cigar Chinkin Housoge Kikyo-Tamenuri Charcoal
The word Housoge suggests a ""flower in the imagination,"" as in a blossom in paradise, a concept dating from the Chinese Tang Dynasty and Japanese Tenpyo period. This charcoal-on-blue Portable Housage Fountain Pen uses an engraving technique. The traditional vine-and-flower motif covers not only the cap and barrel, but also the gripping section.
Shown here in cigar style, this pen makes an elegant statement. Its base color is the ""Kikyo"" (Blue) urushi with Black urushi layered over and engraved with the Housoge design. An artist engraves a motif on the ""Kikyo-Tamenuri"" urushi lacquer surface of the pen, utilizing the unique ""Chinkin"" technique developed in the town of Wajima. In time, the blue under-color will softly emerge from the deep surface color.
A closeup reveals the quality of the engraving, which adds to the feel of the pen between the fingers.
The solid softwood shipping box, heavy decorative rice paper, and woven fabric pouch make this Nakaya urushi pen a lovely gift. Elegant packaging has always been a hallmark of the Nakaya line.
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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.. |