Where Did The Onoto Name Come From?

[WanderingAuthor]

I've developed an obsession with Onoto pens (which may seem odd, since I don't own even one yet - although I hope to change that as soon as I can - but so much about the Onoto ties in with so many of my other interests), and am trying to learn all I can of their history. The name seems an odd one to me; it sounds Japanese, yet Onoto was a British pen, and marketed as such.

 

Anyone who has ever searched on this name must have also discovered Onoto Watanna, the pen name of Winnifred Eaton, a half-English, half-Chinese writer born in Canada who became well known not long before Onoto The Pen was introduced. She posed as a Japanese American (although she was not), and intended her pen name to sound Japanese, but apparently in fact it is not actually Japanese. Supposedly, she told her daughter the pen manufacturer contacted her for permission to use her name, which she granted, but refused any royalties.

 

Now, there is a lot in favour of this theory. The rarity of the word "Onoto", the fact it is not actually Japanese (thus was not taken independently from that language), and the fact that the pen was introduced not long after the writer became well known. Naming a pen after a writer is certainly not a difficult connection to make. And, for what it's worth, the daughter's tale. On the other hand... such stories are invented as often as not. If the pen was named after the writer, why was there not a more explicit connection made in the advertising? So does anyone know of any definitive information which might settle this question?

 

Also, does anyone know of a good, detailed history of Onoto, the original company, not the new company trying to trade on the name? I'd love to get my hands on something such as the history of Parker, which gives a very good idea of the models manufactured, the dates they were introduced, and so on. Does one exist?

Edited April 5, 2011 by WanderingAuthor

[welch]

The new Onoto has a good history of the company. Farther back in this sub-forum you will find a story by a craftsman at Onoto in the '50s. Check Arthur Twydle's site. I think his mother might have written something on Onoto's history. See also Oldham and Marshall's Onoto repair book, from which you can pick up some history by their pen descriptions.

 

Why "Onoto"? There are several stories, but I don't remember that any has a connection to Onoto Watanna.

[rockspyder]

From the Onoto website:

"Onoto, the trading name chosen for the pen, has no special meaning; it is said that it was chosen because it was easy to remember, easily pronounced and sounded the same in any language. One source suggests that the name was chosen because De La Rue had a large market in the Far East."

[WanderingAuthor]

From the Onoto website:

"Onoto, the trading name chosen for the pen, has no special meaning; it is said that it was chosen because it was easy to remember, easily pronounced and sounded the same in any language. One source suggests that the name was chosen because De La Rue had a large market in the Far East."

 

Yes... but this is the new company, with no direct access to the archives and records of the old. "One source suggests" is a phrase that very clearly betrays the fact this is their best guess, not something they have documented proof for.

 

And Onoto Watanna, the Story of Winnifred Eaton, a biography by Diana Birchall, states on page 59 that she told her daughter she was contacted by the company for permission to use her name. Now, this is not direct proof, either, but it holds as much weight as the web site you quote.

 

What I'm wondering is if there is any contemporary evidence for the source of the name. If it was chosen because someone high up in De La Rue took a passing fancy to the works of a then current author - and it stuck because the sound then seemed suitable, as mentioned in the passage you quote - the original impetus might have been forgotten before anyone got around to asking where the name originated. So at the moment, there is no way to be sure.

[WanderingAuthor]

I just found an intriguing reference, by searching Google Books. It is an ad for "Onoto the Pen" in 1908, and promises ' "the story of my life" will be sent free to all interested on application to T. DE LA RUE & Co., Ltd." I would love to get my hands on one of those mailings... Has anyone ever seen one?

 

Also, "I cost 10/6 (upwards for a larger size)" - the least expensive model was ten shillings and sixpence in 1908. It is tricky trying to relate prices across countries and decades, but it seems to me Onoto the Pen was commanding a handsome sum for those days.

 

I'll have to get back to sifting my search results for other interesting ads...

[Pepin]

The English are not known for being original. I look favorably to the hypothesis of a borrowed name. That said, evidence speaks louder than words.

[rogerb]

The English are not known for being original. I look favorably to the hypothesis of a borrowed name. That said, evidence speaks louder than words.

 

That's a completely unjustified slur against a nation which has been one of the most inventive .....although not the best, admittedly, at making a commercial success of their ideas!

 

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_inventions_and_discoveries

 

(And what about the contributions to the arts and popular music ??? )

[Wardok]

Steve Hull is working on a book on Onotos that should be out later this year if you can wait that long. If you've seen his Conway Stewart book you will know that it will be comprehensive! Last time I spoke to him he didn't have a definitive explanation of the name. Still I'm sure the book will include many of the theories.

[kazoolaw]

From the Onoto website:

"Onoto, the trading name chosen for the pen, has no special meaning; it is said that it was chosen because it was easy to remember, easily pronounced and sounded the same in any language. One source suggests that the name was chosen because De La Rue had a large market in the Far East."

 

Yes... but this is the new company, with no direct access to the archives and records of the old. "One source suggests" is a phrase that very clearly betrays the fact this is their best guess, not something they have documented proof for....

 

 

The "sounds the same in any language" theory pre-exists the reincarnation of the Onoto brand. That's my memory from vacation without access to the Lambrou books, which I think mention this theory.

 

gary

[red52ripple]

The English are not known for being original. I look favorably to the hypothesis of a borrowed name.

 

The fatuousness of this remark is, perhaps, emphasised by appearing in a thread about the Onoto, which had a successful self-filling system at a time when most other manufacturers could not get beyond eyedropper fillers. The Onoto plunger-filler system would be repeatedly "borrowed" by other companies in years to come, but it was never implemented as well as De La Rue did in 1905.

 

Deb

[rhr]

Onoto Watanna

 

If you search for Onoto Watanna in Wikipedia, you are redirected to the page for Winnifred Eaton, a Canadian author who adopted Onoto Watanna as her pen name. She was born in Montreal, moved to Chicago and New York, but ended up living most of her life in Calgary, Alberta, and her papers and copies of her books ended up in the University of Alberta library and the Glenbow Archives in Calgary.

 

It is not only the name of the pen company that is in question. Her pseudonym is also controversial. Even though she was half-Chinese, she affected a Japanese persona by cross-cultural dressing and cross-cultural naming. Early in her writing career, she wore a kimono and pretended to be Japanese. Some scholars of her work assume that her pen name is some kind of cipher, or code. In the frontispiece photo in her novel The Wooing of Wistaria, her autograph is written partly in Chinese ideograms and partly in Japanese phonetic alphabet. The two Chinese ideograms for the name "Watanna", but with a Japanese pronunciation, stand for the words "cross + name". Yuko Matsukawa writes, "Given Eaton's predilection for playfulness and crossing, it is curiously appropriate that Winnifred Eaton's pen name turned out to be...also the name of a pen".

 

Diana Birchall, Winnifred Eaton's grand daughter, in her book Onoto Watanna: the story of Winnifred Eaton, p.59, also writes about Doris Rooney, Eaton's daughter and Birchall's mother. Rooney corresponded on Nov 28, 1969 with Yoshiro Ando in Japan, and Birchall paraphrases her mother's letter. Rooney recalled that her mother often told her that the manufacturers of the Onoto pen asked for permission to use her pen name, which she gave, though she disclaimed any royalties. Now, was this just one occasion, or many? If this actually happened, it was probably well after the fact of the naming of the company, perhaps to be used in a later advertisement for the pen. Does anyone have any Onoto Pen Co. ads that feature, or mention Onoto Watanna?

 

George Kovalenko.

 

[Beechwood]

I understood that Onoto came from Ono Tokusa who was a patent holder and whose ideas were incorporated into early Onoto pens

[sumgaikid]

According to Lambrou's Fountain Pens: Vintage And Modern(pp.99-100,105-107),the name

Onoto came from Evelyn Andros de la Rue who bought a Houndstich pen that had been

converted to a plunger-filler by inventor George Sweetser. de la Rue coined the name for

the purposes of easy pronunciation in every language and wide marketability. Onoto stayed

an English-based creation until 1958,when de la Rue dropped the Onoto line. Norman Baker

and Longhurst Pty Ltd quickly picked up the Onoto line and continued to produce and export

Onoto pens as late as 1988.

 

Note: My last statement was a bit off--there is no answer as to when the Onoto

line ended. The comment about 1988 referred to profit de la Rue made from its

printing operations.

 

 

John

Edited April 9, 2011 by sumgaikid

[akiva]

On page 141 of the book "The House that Thomas Built" the story of De La Rue and published by De La Rue in 1968 , states that the pens were called Onoto for the only reason that its pronunciation was the same in all languages.

[rhr]

I understood that Onoto came from Ono Tokusa who was a patent holder and whose ideas were incorporated into early Onoto pens.

Actually, his name is Ono Tokusaburo. David Cooper states in A Brief History of Onoto Pens, "It is possible that it was named after Ono Tokusaburo, a Japanese watchmaker [who] registered a [Japanese] patent in 1885 for a stylographic pen whose features may have been incorporated in the Onostyle and other stylographic pens made by Thomas De La Rue at the turn of the 20th Century", such as the De La Rue "Nota Bene" stylo.

 

 

On page 141 of the book "The House that Thomas Built" the story of De La Rue and published by De La Rue in 1968 , states that the pens were called Onoto for the only reason that its pronunciation was the same in all languages.

As I wrote in a post in an earlier thread in this forum, "The most often quoted explanation is that the name was chosen because it "sounded the same in any language", but that sounds more like an after-the-fact rationalization".

 

George Kovalenko.

 

[david@onoto.com]

As a director of the 'new' Onoto company, I've spent a lot of time in the past 7 years trying to find the answer to the question 'Where did the Onoto name come from?'

 

Most of the options have already been aired on this thread - apart from one recently which tried to tie the name of a reddish mineral with the colour of some of the early hard rubber Onotos. But which came first? The simple fact is, they are all suppositions.

 

It might have been different if the Onoto offices in London had not been burned to the ground in the Blitz (9 September 1940)- We must assume that most historical information was lost at this time.

 

For the record, when we took over the Onoto brand name in 2004 it was entirely with De La Rue's blessing. Indeed their former Chairman, Sir Brandon Gough and Company Secretary, Louise Fluker, were principal guests at the Onoto Pen Company's launch at the London Stock Exchange in March 2005. What's more, we were given access to the Onoto archives at De La Rue's head office in Basingstoke. Sadly, there was/is little information of any great value included there, and certainly no information about the origins of the name.

 

Perhaps when Steve Hull's book is published next year we will have the definitive answer to the question - but somehow I doubt it!

 

My own 'take' on it is this... Lorna Houseman who wrote 'The House That Thomas Built' in 1968 was very well connected to the De La Rue company: her grandfather, father and husband had been either Chairmen or Directors. What's more, in undertaking research to write a 200 page book she would have had access to more details of the company and the people involved than anyone else before or since. Surely she would have asked where the Onoto name came from? The answer then -'It was called 'Onoto' for the only reason that its pronunciation was the same in all languages', she wrote - is probably as close as we can get to the truth.

 

I hope that helps - or maybe it will inspire a new raft of theories!

 

Cheers

 

David Cooper

[WanderingAuthor]

As a director of the 'new' Onoto company, I've spent a lot of time in the past 7 years trying to find the answer to the question 'Where did the Onoto name come from?'

 

Most of the options have already been aired on this thread - apart from one recently which tried to tie the name of a reddish mineral with the colour of some of the early hard rubber Onotos. But which came first? The simple fact is, they are all suppositions.

 

It might have been different if the Onoto offices in London had not been burned to the ground in the Blitz (9 September 1940)- We must assume that most historical information was lost at this time.

 

For the record, when we took over the Onoto brand name in 2004 it was entirely with De La Rue's blessing. Indeed their former Chairman, Sir Brandon Gough and Company Secretary, Louise Fluker, were principal guests at the Onoto Pen Company's launch at the London Stock Exchange in March 2005. What's more, we were given access to the Onoto archives at De La Rue's head office in Basingstoke. Sadly, there was/is little information of any great value included there, and certainly no information about the origins of the name.

 

Perhaps when Steve Hull's book is published next year we will have the definitive answer to the question - but somehow I doubt it!

 

My own 'take' on it is this... Lorna Houseman who wrote 'The House That Thomas Built' in 1968 was very well connected to the De La Rue company: her grandfather, father and husband had been either Chairmen or Directors. What's more, in undertaking research to write a 200 page book she would have had access to more details of the company and the people involved than anyone else before or since. Surely she would have asked where the Onoto name came from? The answer then -'It was called 'Onoto' for the only reason that its pronunciation was the same in all languages', she wrote - is probably as close as we can get to the truth.

 

I hope that helps - or maybe it will inspire a new raft of theories!

 

 

Well, that explains why so much historical information is hard to find. Destroyed on the third night of the Blitz. It seems I have something more to blame the Nazis for...

 

I do agree with you entirely that we will probably never know just how the name arose. With the archives so thoroughly destroyed, unless the diary of someone who was there when the name was chosen turns up, there will probably never be documentary evidence. (And even then, unless the diarist was the person who introduced that name - or the person who did explained where they "got it" and the diarist recorded that - we wouldn't know any more.)

 

That said, I think there is basis for a circumstantial theory here. We can probably all agree that the final decision was made because the name could be pronounced the same in any language. Still, Onoto is hardly the only possible name this could be said of. Why was this name suggested? In the time period in question, it would have been unlikely to hire consultants to prepare a lengthy list of potential names. So, they were probably sitting around trying to think of a good name, and someone tossed out "Onoto". Why? Well, as we agreed, we will probably never know what was going through their head. It is possible no one other than the person who mentioned it had any idea - and even the person who made the suggestion might have thought of a name without consciously pursuing how it came into their mind. So far, I think what I'm suggesting is all fairly uncontroversial. The person who suggested the name might not have recalled where they heard it; even if they did, they might not have mentioned it to the others. The discussion might have centered on what it sounded like - and the fact that it would sound the same in every language, an evident advantage. Thus, years later, all anyone would recall would be the reason why the name was chosen in the end, not the impetus for suggesting that particular name.

 

Now, I learned many things while I was a professional genealogist. Two of them seem to apply here. One is that, when dealing with any truly rare name, there is a good chance of some connection between otherwise isolated instances. In this case, where the name Onoto seems to apply only to the pen and to one author's pen name, and where the author in question had become prominent not long before the pen was named, and thus those books, bearing that name, would have been widely read at precisely the time a name was being chosen for the pen, the connection seems obvious enough to suggest that, whether the association was conscious or not, the name of the writer probably influenced the suggestion of that name. After all, the name Onoto was already in the public consciousness - presumably at least one of those involved in choosing the name had encountered it - and it is an uncommon name, especially in Britain at that time, except for the author's pen name. It isn't a string of letters which would ordinarily spring naturally into the mind of an English speaker, either. The second thing I learned which seems to apply, sadly, is that no matter how excellent a circumstantial theory it is possible to build up, without documentary evidence to settle the matter, the most it is ever possible to do is speak of probabilities.

 

There is also the evidence of Winnifred Eaton's biography. Although the assertion the directors had asked her permission to use the name was related second hand by her daughter, it does at least suggest that, before or after the name was finally selected, someone may have realised there was a famous claimant to this unusual name and sought to avoid legal problems with its use. Of course, if they did ask, this underscores how unusual the name was; they would hardly have sought permission from anyone bearing an ordinary enough name that no specific individual would immediately spring to mind. Putting that tidbit together with the chain of reasoning I've outlined above, although we still must consider the theory unproven, I think it is fair to state that, in the absence of a more well-documented explanation, this does seem to be the most likely reason the original suggestion was made.

[esterbex]

As a director of the 'new' Onoto company, I've spent a lot of time in the past 7 years trying to find the answer to the question 'Where did the Onoto name come from?'

 

Most of the options have already been aired on this thread - apart from one recently which tried to tie the name of a reddish mineral with the colour of some of the early hard rubber Onotos. But which came first? The simple fact is, they are all suppositions.

 

It might have been different if the Onoto offices in London had not been burned to the ground in the Blitz (9 September 1940)- We must assume that most historical information was lost at this time.

 

For the record, when we took over the Onoto brand name in 2004 it was entirely with De La Rue's blessing. Indeed their former Chairman, Sir Brandon Gough and Company Secretary, Louise Fluker, were principal guests at the Onoto Pen Company's launch at the London Stock Exchange in March 2005. What's more, we were given access to the Onoto archives at De La Rue's head office in Basingstoke. Sadly, there was/is little information of any great value included there, and certainly no information about the origins of the name.

 

Perhaps when Steve Hull's book is published next year we will have the definitive answer to the question - but somehow I doubt it!

 

My own 'take' on it is this... Lorna Houseman who wrote 'The House That Thomas Built' in 1968 was very well connected to the De La Rue company: her grandfather, father and husband had been either Chairmen or Directors. What's more, in undertaking research to write a 200 page book she would have had access to more details of the company and the people involved than anyone else before or since. Surely she would have asked where the Onoto name came from? The answer then -'It was called 'Onoto' for the only reason that its pronunciation was the same in all languages', she wrote - is probably as close as we can get to the truth.

 

I hope that helps - or maybe it will inspire a new raft of theories!

 

 

Well, that explains why so much historical information is hard to find. Destroyed on the third night of the Blitz. It seems I have something more to blame the Nazis for...

 

I do agree with you entirely that we will probably never know just how the name arose. With the archives so thoroughly destroyed, unless the diary of someone who was there when the name was chosen turns up, there will probably never be documentary evidence. (And even then, unless the diarist was the person who introduced that name - or the person who did explained where they "got it" and the diarist recorded that - we wouldn't know any more.)

 

That said, I think there is basis for a circumstantial theory here. We can probably all agree that the final decision was made because the name could be pronounced the same in any language. Still, Onoto is hardly the only possible name this could be said of. Why was this name suggested? In the time period in question, it would have been unlikely to hire consultants to prepare a lengthy list of potential names. So, they were probably sitting around trying to think of a good name, and someone tossed out "Onoto". Why? Well, as we agreed, we will probably never know what was going through their head. It is possible no one other than the person who mentioned it had any idea - and even the person who made the suggestion might have thought of a name without consciously pursuing how it came into their mind. So far, I think what I'm suggesting is all fairly uncontroversial. The person who suggested the name might not have recalled where they heard it; even if they did, they might not have mentioned it to the others. The discussion might have centered on what it sounded like - and the fact that it would sound the same in every language, an evident advantage. Thus, years later, all anyone would recall would be the reason why the name was chosen in the end, not the impetus for suggesting that particular name.

 

Now, I learned many things while I was a professional genealogist. Two of them seem to apply here. One is that, when dealing with any truly rare name, there is a good chance of some connection between otherwise isolated instances. In this case, where the name Onoto seems to apply only to the pen and to one author's pen name, and where the author in question had become prominent not long before the pen was named, and thus those books, bearing that name, would have been widely read at precisely the time a name was being chosen for the pen, the connection seems obvious enough to suggest that, whether the association was conscious or not, the name of the writer probably influenced the suggestion of that name. After all, the name Onoto was already in the public consciousness - presumably at least one of those involved in choosing the name had encountered it - and it is an uncommon name, especially in Britain at that time, except for the author's pen name. It isn't a string of letters which would ordinarily spring naturally into the mind of an English speaker, either. The second thing I learned which seems to apply, sadly, is that no matter how excellent a circumstantial theory it is possible to build up, without documentary evidence to settle the matter, the most it is ever possible to do is speak of probabilities.

 

There is also the evidence of Winnifred Eaton's biography. Although the assertion the directors had asked her permission to use the name was related second hand by her daughter, it does at least suggest that, before or after the name was finally selected, someone may have realised there was a famous claimant to this unusual name and sought to avoid legal problems with its use. Of course, if they did ask, this underscores how unusual the name was; they would hardly have sought permission from anyone bearing an ordinary enough name that no specific individual would immediately spring to mind. Putting that tidbit together with the chain of reasoning I've outlined above, although we still must consider the theory unproven, I think it is fair to state that, in the absence of a more well-documented explanation, this does seem to be the most likely reason the original suggestion was made.

 

Was the pen from it's inception called "Onoto the Pen'? That would lend credence to the theory outlined by you to distinguish it from the author of that time period. No other pens to my knowledge included "the Pen" in their monikers....but I'm no historian or pen expert....

Edited April 12, 2011 by esterbex

[WanderingAuthor]

Was the pen from it's inception called "Onoto the Pen'? That would lend credence to the theory outlined by you to distinguish it from the author of that time period. No other pens to my knowledge included "the Pen" in their monikers....but I'm no historian or pen expert....

 

Interesting; I hadn't thought of that. Not quite from inception; at least, I have a copy of an ad from 1905 in which it is called "The Onoto Fount", and 1907 in The Strand it is just called "The Onoto Pen" (this is the only ad I've seen which features a photo? of a woman, but I have no idea if it is Winnifred Eaton; the woman appears vaguely Asian - Winnifred was half Chinese - but then the styles of that day made many women appear that way, at least to my eye), but then in 1908 "Onoto the Pen" appears. Of course, there may have been other ads I haven't found.

 

 

This is the ad from The Strand. I'll have to try to see if I can hunt down a picture of Winnifred Eaton from the period, to compare her with the woman in this ad.

 

Edited to add; the photos I can find are not good, and the hairstyles are so different that I have trouble forming a solid opinion, but I won't say I've been able to rule out the possibility this woman in the ad is Winnifred Eaton, who wrote under the name Onoto Watanna. Or she may have been intended to resemble her; who knows what went through the mind of advertising men in those days?

 

 

This is the first instance I'm aware of using the name "Onoto the Pen". Edited to add: I would think that at least one copy of "The story of my life" would have survived - and I'd love to see a copy of that. I wonder if the book that is coming out will feature anything of the sort?

Edited April 12, 2011 by WanderingAuthor

[esterbex]

What a lovely mystery that may ne'er be solved.... :hmm1: