Maruzen Penfair 2019

[mke]

Today I went to the pen fair at Maruzen (Tokyo) and the pre-sales of the Mitsukoshi pen fair which starts Wednesday next week.

Maruzen: it was the first time that I went there. I was not really impressed - Ohashido, Eboya, Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, Pilot, Caran d'Ache, Pelikan, Parker, ... were present - but everyone just with only a few pens - space is extremely limited.

And of course, the Maruzen brand Athena with some limited pens and inks, personally, I found this more interesting. Unexpected but very nice: around 40-50 bottles of each limited Athena ink from the penshows 2010 to this year (10 in total) were available - newly produced, not NOS. See photo.
The anniversary inks of Pilot were also available, couldn't resist and bought a full set too. Pilot inks are cheap in Japan - much cheaper than Sailor inks.

I was surprised that there were not so many customers, I expected many more. I didn't want to buy a pen, so I headed over to Mitsukoshi to see what "pre-sales" actually means. Everything tacked "web" in their flyer was already available today and is available online. That was good luck because I could buy already today the new LEs of Pilot's capless pens for a friend. I didn't want to be led in temptation to buy a pen, so I left early today.

Athena ink stack (the ink on the right side at the bottom is Onoto ink)

 

Edited March 6, 2019 by mke

[wanderlust]

Wish I can be there!!!

[Chaosyoshi]

How long does the fair last?

[mke]

Maruzen (Nihombashi) March 6-12

Mitsukoshi (Nihombashi) March 13-19; pre-sales March 6-12

[fudefan]

I went to Maruzen too, and wrote a thing about the Athena anniversary pen:

https://www.fudefan.com/2019/03/maruzen-150th-athena/

Also said hello to mke

The 1870 ink is quite nice! Blue with a hint of purple:

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by fudefan

[mke]

Fudefan beat me again - this time by 46 minutes. I wanted to give you the link to his blog.

 

But he didn't mention his instagram site with beautiful pen photos.

https://www.instagram.com/fudefan/?hl=en

Edited March 7, 2019 by mke

[tosakarinn]

I too went for a short while, had dinner with fudefan but couldnt catch mke. Maybe next time. Show was small in size, and the main draw in my opinion is the inks. However, Fujii san from Eurobox was there with his vintage goodies and there was a limited edition Plum Urushi Pilot as well

[Pen_Padawan]

Thanks for sharing the ink sample now Ive got to have it! Looks great.

 

 

 

The 1870 ink is quite nice! Blue with a hint of purple:

 

[mke]

Better call Maruzen and reserve 1-3 bottles. Otherwise, they are sold out.

[Pen_Padawan]

Better call Maruzen and reserve 1-3 bottles. Otherwise, they are sold out.

Sold out

[fudefan]

They're back in stock today!

[MalcLee]

This blue is really nice - it is my kind of blue.

I think Eboya released a show edition pen for Maruzen in a very nice yellow.

Thank you for sharing the writing samples. I will try and hunt some down for myself.

[mke]

You mean this one? It is from Maruzen.

Overview

The Eboya is the third on the left in the picture below. It is green-striped.

 

 

 

Link1

Link2

Edited March 10, 2019 by mke

[mke]

We forgot to mention that Maruzen also brought out a special edition of their Athena ink for their 150th anniversary in February.

 

[MalcLee]

The one on the flyer looks quite different to that on their Facebook site (but the same pen essentially), but you're right mke - it is yellow with green stripes - like a Christmas Melon.

 

 

It looks like the inks are the real highlights of the show. I'm still enamoured with that 1870 blue.

Edited March 10, 2019 by MalcLee

[Olya]

You mean this one? It is from Maruzen.

Overview

The Eboya is the third on the left in the picture below. It is green-striped.

 

 

 

Link1

Link2

 

Stating the obvious, but that "Lemon" pen is a Pilot, yes? Looks like a 912 with a 742 clip. Very pretty! I used google translate and it made out "custom" (which could mean either "custom made for this occasion" or "custom series Pilot"!) and n°10 (...nib? Which fits with the 912/ 742 line).

 

Anyway, very jealous over all the stationery goodies available in Japan!! (from disposables to literally everything!!)

[fudefan]

I mentioned it briefly in my text, but yes, Lemon is based on 742/912. Comes in a nice package.

 

The name, Lemon, refers to a famous novel by Motojiro Kajii, set in Kyoto. The protagonist spends a lot of time in Maruzen's Kyoto store.

[Olya]

I mentioned it briefly in my text, but yes, Lemon is based on 742/912. Comes in a nice package.

 

The name, Lemon, refers to a famous novel by Motojiro Kajii, set in Kyoto. The protagonist spends a lot of time in Maruzen's Kyoto store.

Thank you for all that info!

[Pen_Padawan]

They're back in stock today!

I went first thing this morning, the manager said they are out

[fudefan]

That's unfortunate! When I went there Sunday morning they had a bunch of them.