Nakaya posts pictures of custom ordered pens, and recently they collected their pictures of pens depicting goldfish. Goldfish were imported in Japan from China in the 16th century, and since then they have been cherished, first by the aristocracy, later (since the 19th century) by the Japanese population at large. They appear in many paintings, drawings, and also on pens. In fact, the example of maki-e artwork discussed in Murakami concerns a goldfish. Many more examples of pens with goldfish are shown in that book, but also in Hutt and Overbury (2000) and Lambrou (1995) pens with goldfishes are depicted. All these pens are maki-e pens. Interestingly, Nakaya has depicted goldfish in different techniques. The first picture shows the complete pens, the second picture a detail of these pens.
The lacquering techniques differ between the pens. I discuss them from left to right.
Aka-Tame Sukashi
The goldfishes are painted in gold on a red layer of urushi lacquer. Then, the painting is covered with another layer of red urushi lacquer. Because urushi lacquer becomes more translucent over time due to oxidation of the membrame of the lacquer. In the end, urushi lacquer is a natural product. So in the beginning the goldfish are not that visible, but over time they become more visible.
Aka-Tame Sukashi Nuri-hanshi
This technique is similar as the one described above. However, the finish of the pen is matt, and not shiny as the pen shown on the left. The shine is derived in the last stage of the production, by polishing the surface of the pen. For this pen, the polishing is not done. Hence, it is very important to apply the lacquer as a smooth surface, because any errors (droplets, unevenness) will show and cannot be removed by burnishing the surface as is the case with regular shiny urushi finish.
Aka-Tame and Kuro-Tame
The background of the pen (one of the initial layers) is made using dark urushi. The colored fish are painted using red lacquer.
Maki-e
The fish are depicted using small pieces of reddish gold and silver powders. Different types of goldpowders are used to depict the water plant. The fishes are somewhat raised compared to the surface of the pen.
Chinkin
First, the pen is finished using a black background. Then, very small carvings are made, and colored gold powders are sown into these holes. The pen is finished with translucent lacquer. The surface of the pen is smooth, as opposed to the pen finished in maki-e. Note that chinkin pens offered by Namiki are finished in one color only, colored chinkin is rare.
References
Hutt, J. and S. Overbury (2000) Namiki, The Art of Japanese Lacquer Pens, Toronto: Pens Unlimited
Lambrou, A. (1995) Fountain Pens of the World, London: Philip Wilson Publishers.
Murakami, T. (2002) Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens, Tokyo: Shibunkan.
