Yotsubishi Photo Thread

[PenHero]

Hi, Folks,

 

This is another view of this stunning pen.

 

This is a Yotsubishi Japanese eyedropper fountain pen with shut-off plunger, c. 1955. It is decorated using the raden maki-e technique, where strips of abalone (as in this example) or other shells are used as inlays to decorate urushi lacquer coated objects. The base pen, cap, barrel and nib section, are first coated with urushi lacquer. Then the artist makes rectangular (tanzaku) cutouts in the cap and barrel surface which are repeated to create the wave pattern inlay decoration. Yotsubishi did not make hardware, so the clip and nib were jobbed out. The nib is a warranted 14 karat gold number 4. The Yotsubishi four diamond logo appears on the clip.

 

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_15.jpg

 

Thanks!

[PenHero]

Hi, Folks,

This is another shot of this gorgeous pen.

This is a Yotsubishi raden shell inlay on red urushi lacquer eyedropper fountain pen c. 1955. The pen was featured in the Winter 2006 Pennant article “Collecting Japanese Pens” by Stan Klemanowicz. According to the article, the pen was made by Yotsubishi (literally Yotu = Four, Bisi = Diamond), a company from Osaka that made decorated pens, but sourced nibs and hardware from other pen companies. The four diamond logo can be seen on the top of the clip and on the cap band. The nib is made by Platinum and is stamped PLATINUM over 14K. GOLD over 30 YEAR over 3 over PEN. It’s an eyedropper with a shut off valve, operated by unscrewing the end of the barrel to open the valve.

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_16.jpg

Thanks!

[ehemem]

Hi, Folks,

This is another shot of this gorgeous pen.

This is a Yotsubishi raden shell inlay on red urushi lacquer eyedropper fountain pen c. 1955. The pen was featured in the Winter 2006 Pennant article “Collecting Japanese Pens” by Stan Klemanowicz. According to the article, the pen was made by Yotsubishi (literally Yotu = Four, Bisi = Diamond), a company from Osaka that made decorated pens, but sourced nibs and hardware from other pen companies. The four diamond logo can be seen on the top of the clip and on the cap band. The nib is made by Platinum and is stamped PLATINUM over 14K. GOLD over 30 YEAR over 3 over PEN. It’s an eyedropper with a shut off valve, operated by unscrewing the end of the barrel to open the valve.

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_16.jpg

Thanks!

 

 

Absolutely stunning pen. Thanks for the photos.

[PenHero]

Hi, Folks!

 

These two Yotsubishi Japanese eyedropper fountain pens, c. 1955-1957, represent two urushi painting styles. The left pen is painted with a tiger image that runs down from the cap to the barrel that was overcoated with clear urushi. The right pen is a pond scene with swimming fish extending the full length of the pen, done in the kanshitsu-fun (dry lacquer) technique where a coarse powder is made from dried urushi to create a textured design and surface.

 

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_17.jpg

 

Thanks!

[rebcabin]

fabulous!

[txomsy]

Wow!

[Siv]

The tiger looks stunning - but perhaps not painted in urushi? The level of shading is not something I've seen in other urushi work. If it is urushi, perhaps lost art/technique?

[PenHero]

The tiger looks stunning - but perhaps not painted in urushi? The level of shading is not something I've seen in other urushi work. If it is urushi, perhaps lost art/technique?

 

Good point - the pen was coated in urushi prior to painting and overcoated after. The lion itself may or may not be urushi. Had the pen over 10 years ago and wrote from my notes.

[rudyhou]

they both look awesome.

[MartinPauli]

Beautiful pens, especially the patina "hada-ai" that the lacquer has gained over the years.

 

The lion painting is called "Mitsudate" oil painting on Urushi lacquer ground.

For quicker drying the oil paint was mixed with Tung Oil "tôyu" and litharge "mitsudasô".

With this technique pictures with clear and strong colors can be executed, which is not possible with Urushi

[PenHero]

Beautiful pens, especially the patina "hada-ai" that the lacquer has gained over the years.

 

The lion painting is called "Mitsudate" oil painting on Urushi lacquer ground.

For quicker drying the oil paint was mixed with Tung Oil "tôyu" and litharge "mitsudasô".

With this technique pictures with clear and strong colors can be executed, which is not possible with Urushi

 

Thanks for that detail!

[rebcabin]

The tiger looks stunning - but perhaps not painted in urushi? The level of shading is not something I've seen in other urushi work. If it is urushi, perhaps lost art/technique?

 

The tiger looks like an ultra-fine Chinkin (spelling?) to my amateur eye. IINM, Chinkin is scratching through a layer of dark lacquer to expose a lighter layer underneath?

[stan]

All of the Yotubisi pens in the photographs posted by Penhero were in my collection. They are gone and now repose in other well-cared for collections.

 

The tiger was painted on the layer beneath a final coat of urushi. Whether there was a layer of urushi under the tiger is unknown.

 

Enlarge the photograph and look at the detail. Many fine lines, wonderful attention to detail, and you can even see the inside of the tiger's mouth. Note the shading too. Artwork is quality! No special or lost technique. Just a good artist and attention to detail.

 

What may be unusual is the tiger is painted and not screened. I'm sure other Japanese pens with the same technique exist but, have not seen them in twenty years of collecting. That said, several other FPNers may soon post other similarly painted pens. Please do.

[PenHero]

Hi Folks!

 

These are two urushi coated and decorated Yotsubishi safety shut-off eyedropper fountain pens c. 1955-1957. The top pen is decorated with cherry blossoms and has a long tapered section with a small 14 karat gold nib, a similar design to late 1940s to early 1950s Waterman Taperite pens. YOTUBISI is stamped on the face of the clip. The name means four diamonds, thus the logo. The base pen is coated with urushi lacquer and then decorated with cherry blossoms using the Kirikane technique, a Buddhist decorative art used on statues and paintings, where gold leaf is glued to the surface of the object. The pen would then be overcoated with clear urushi. The lower pen is painted with a highly detailed tiger image that runs the length of the cap and barrel that was then overcoated with clear urushi.

 

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_18.jpg

 

Thanks!

[PenHero]

Hi Folks!

 

This is a Yotsubishi Kawari-nuri sakura (cherry) bark pattern urushi coated fountain pen c. 1955-1959. The cap, barrel and section are all coated with urushi lacquer and finished with the sakura (cherry) bark pattern so that the artwork flows over the entire pen. Japanese cherry tree bark has a distinctive pattern and is featured in wooden objects, such as boxes, frames, and vases. The free form artwork on this pen is intended to recreate the pattern using the red urushi lacquer base and contrasting elements. Kawari-nuri is not considered a maki-e technique, but means free patterns, so the artist may decorate the urushi surface using new ideas including altering the surface with patterns, textures or swirls, adding colors, or other decorations outside traditional maki-e. Kawari-nuri artwork on pens is not likely to be signed by the artist. It is a squeeze type filler, possibly aerometric (which would require a feed tube), which dates the pen to the 1950s, following the design of the Parker 51 Aerometric. The trim is gold filler. The nib is a warranted 14 karat gold number 4 size nib. The pen is on the large size, at 5 1/4 inches long and quite broad. Ishi-Shoten, also known as Ishi & Co., was established in Tokyo in 1925 by pen maker Yoshinosuke Ishii. Following the lead of Pilot, who began making maki-e pens in the 1920s, Ishi-Shoten, though a small company with initially as few as ten workers, competed by making inexpensive maki-e pens. Ishi-Shoten used the four diamond trademark, yotsubishi in Japanese, and the mark can be found on the clip top on most pens. In reference materials, on the pens, and in catalogs, there are three spellings, Yotsubishi, Yotubisi, and Yotubishi. The company ceased operations in 1984.

 

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_11.jpg

 

Thanks!

[PenHero]

Hi Folks!

This is a Yotsubishi Kawari-nuri sakura (cherry) bark pattern urushi coated fountain pen c. 1955-1959, shown open so the filler can be seen. The cap, barrel and section are all coated with urushi lacquer and finished with the sakura (cherry) bark pattern so that the artwork flows over the entire pen. Japanese cherry tree bark has a distinctive pattern and is featured in wooden objects, such as boxes, frames, and vases. The free form artwork on this pen is intended to recreate the pattern using the red urushi lacquer base and contrasting elements. Kawari-nuri is not considered a maki-e technique, but means free patterns, so the artist may decorate the urushi surface using new ideas including altering the surface with patterns, textures or swirls, adding colors, or other decorations outside traditional maki-e. Kawari-nuri artwork on pens is not likely to be signed by the artist. It is a squeeze type filler, possibly aerometric (which would require a feed tube), which dates the pen to the 1950s, following the design of the Parker 51 Aerometric. The trim is gold filler. The nib is a warranted 14 karat gold number 4 size nib. The pen is on the large size, at 5 1/4 inches long and quite broad. Ishi-Shoten, also known as Ishi & Co., was established in Tokyo in 1925 by pen maker Yoshinosuke Ishii. Following the lead of Pilot, who began making maki-e pens in the 1920s, Ishi-Shoten, though a small company with initially as few as ten workers, competed by making inexpensive maki-e pens. Ishi-Shoten used the four diamond trademark, yotsubishi in Japanese, and the mark can be found on the clip top on most pens. In reference materials, on the pens, and in catalogs, there are three spellings, Yotsubishi, Yotubisi, and Yotubishi. The company ceased operations in 1984.

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/Yotsubishi_2048_09.jpg

Thanks!

[PenHero]

Hi Folks!

 

This is a set of three Yotsubishi eyedropper filler fountain pens with shut off plungers all c. 1955. From left to right are a Yotsubishi decorated with brushed silver dust mixed with urushi and applied in a beautiful pattern on the cap and barrel, a Yotsubishi decorated with abalone strips using the raden maki-e technique where the base pen is coated with urushi lacquer and then the strips are inlaid and overcoated, and a Yotsubishi raden using crushed abalone shell on the urushi coated lacquer cap and barrel. Ishi-Shoten, also known as Ishi & Co., was established in Tokyo in 1925 by pen maker Yoshinosuke Ishii. Following the lead of Pilot, who began making maki-e pens in the 1920s, Ishi-Shoten, though a small company with initially as few as ten workers, competed by making inexpensive maki-e pens. Ishi-Shoten used the four diamond trademark, yotsubishi in Japanese, and the mark can be found on the clip top on most pens. In reference materials, on the pens, and in catalogs, there are three spellings, Yotsubishi, Yotubisi, and Yotubishi. The company ceased operations in 1984.

 

http://www.penhero.com/Temp/YotsubishiSet_2048_01.jpg

 

Thanks!