Hiramakie seems to have gotten a bad rap recently. Somehow, the perception they are of lesser quality, or even junk, has taken hold in some quarters. We'd like to do something to correct this misconception.

I've always been interested in these pens with flat screened reddish and gold designs from the 1950s. Many were elegantly done and several repose in our collection. We are interested in adding more when the circumstances are right.

On our website I am planning to set up a corner where pictures of some can be displayed and am interested in knowing who has such pens and would like thier pictures posted. Your name as photographer and owner will be represented, or you can remain anonymous. I see this primarily as a reference source to show everyone what is out there.

Anyone interested, please send an email to stanklem@dslextreme.com.

Thanks.

Are you interested exclusively in the pens from the 50's, or in any screened maki-e?



Personally, I usually prefer the look of screened maki-e to hand-painted, because of the graphic quality with strong outlines it lends to images. And I certainly do not think the screened pens are junk. What I do think, and said as much in my comparative review, is that the inherent technique, materials, and value of these pens do differ from the more elaborate hand-painted versions, and buyers are not always aware of that.

I love my screened maki-e and wrote this review of the "big 3" brands some months ago:
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=61545

If any of those pens suit your purposes, I can take better photos. However, these are probably not what you had in mind!

QM2

Those are great looking pens and a fine collection. This might be a good opportunity for everyone to display their hiramakie pens.

As our site is mostly dedicated to 'vintage' we would like to maintain that focus.
In the next week we will add some pictures from our collection.

Thanks.

I've got one of these:


While it's not the most fancy maki-e pen out there, the simplicity of the design and the execution really caught my eye and I love it. The fact that it's a brilliant writer is just icing on the cake.

I MUST clarify before anymore folks calling Hira maki-e as "screened" maki-e. This is incorrect. Hira-maki-e mean just that, "flat", not raised maki-e, but in traditional sense, it is still done by hand, gold powders the whole bit. No two hira maki-e are exactly the same, unlike screened maki-e, they are ALL the same.... think of it as printing T-shirts.

Many pens you see on ebays are screened, and you can tell as they usually provides very bright colors which with hira maki-e done with traditional maki-e method is NOT possible. Screened maki-e also will rubbed off over time, but genuine maki-e, even hira maki-e will not under normal use.

This is done using screen technique:

Notice the color is very bright and there is no "shades" to the color... the colors are "solid" if you would.

This is done by hand, Hira maki-e (mostly)

notice the colors are generally not as "bright" as screened, and there are "shades" of colors (leaves).

Kevin

To clarify some pictures should have been included.

The first is an early 1950s Ryo with crane and turtle design. The second, another Ryo with a tradtitional origami crane found on many period hiramakie. They are in our collection. The third is an early 1950s Selan with a rooster on the barrel. This picture was nicked from Yahoo Japan.

We hope you get the idea of what we are looking for. They are no where near as pretty and elaborate as the many hiramakie produced today. They do, however, have a special charm, are inexpensive, and are neat additions to one's collection.

I have a few hiramaki-e pens.

Great thread, Stan. Thanks for starting it. I hadn't heard of Hira maki-e before. Some beautiful pens shown--looking forward to seeing more!

Is mine a real Hira Maki-e? I looks hand painted (irregular size items and brush strokes) and I believe Pilot calls it their Hira Maki-e but then again it could be a hand painted design that is screen printed. I've never seen two together that I could compare!



The Hira Maki-e pens that you guys have shown are all much more intricate and beautiful!

It's hard to tell without examine it closely. Maki-e in very strict sense should include gold sprinkling, but now, any hand painted pens are generally call maki-e, which you may or may not agree with this broad use. Your pen more consistent with "urushi-e", meaning the colors are done using urushi lacuqer. If the beaks and the legs are done with real gold then you can call it maki-e. To put the cost down, we have seen the base design done by screen print, then the artist would do part of it with gold powder as accent for example. Nothing wrong with this kind of maki-e as it make it more affordable, but the retailer should be upfront with customers as to what they are exactly buying.

Kevin

This pen, for example, by strict sense, is not maki-e, but urushi-e, since the colors are all done by urushi with NO gold used.




Kevin

Thanks for the reply Kevin. I think I would call it urushi-e though the legs and signature are gold, they are not sprinkes - maybe painted?

Seems like Pilot doesn't hesitate to call it Maki-e though!



Anyway, for the price I paid, it's a beautiful pen but looking at some of the vintage ones in this post, these newer mass produces ones seem sterile in comparison...

Painted is still OK as long as real gold were used :-).... technically not wrong.

Maki-e is "personal", as long as it appeals to you, then that's what matters. It's like we can buy real paintings of masters, or for most of us, lithograph is perfectly fine. I have the grapes pen pictured above.

Kevin

Hi,

Kevin, could you tell us more about the pen? The design is cute with the paper crane and the children.

Dillon

Hi Dillon,

It is a cute pen indeed. it's call "warabe" or "children". It is quite a popular pen as I have seen parents getting it to celebrate birth of their child.

Kevin

WOW! I'm impressed.

All that was hoped was the opportunity to collect a few pictures of screen printed pens from the 1950s. The response to my post is overwhelming and not what I expected.

We'll have a few more pictures posted soon.

The difference between urushi-e and (taka) maki-e is clear from the pictures below. There is more gradation of colour in the maki-e pen and the fish raised on the surface, making the picture three dimensional. Both are made by Nakaya (and unfortunately, they're not mine). Ruud


Akatame and kurotame



Taka maki-e