Makie Signature Compendium

[stan]

So often I am asked for translation assistance and, based on postings in this forum, that there seems a need for a compendium of uncatalogued makie signatures. I'm entertaining production of such a document and need assistance from whoever can offer an artists signature from a pen. The emphasis will be on 1950s and 1930s minor brands that produced substantial numbers of pens. Silver pens too with engravers signatures are also to be included.

 

This is NOT about Dunhill-Namiki, Pilot Kokkokai, or Plat 3776 artisan signatures. There are places elsewhere where that information is to be found. It is about unknown artists.

 

Please contact me if interested. This is a service to the Japanese pen collecting community. Nothing more.

[Scribs]

Great idea, unfortunately I can't be of much help. Good luck though!

[stan]

Thanks, anyway.

So far either not much interest or those with older pens are no longer here.

 

Post will be deleted in a week or so if no interest.

[Scribs]

I keep wondering where everyone that used to come here has gone, it's sad. Soon we will have to watch out for the tumbleweed with dusty, faded ink stains. 🫤

[Erad67]

I am hoping to start work on a website to compile info about Japanese pens.  (Bought a URL for it as well & already have a hosting service account.)  I'm not remotely as much of an expert on the topic as you, but I have noticed a lack of a place with a lot of info together.  Everything is very scattered.  I like pulling info together.  I'm thinking of having a message board like this for people to communicate with each other and a wiki to put info, maybe a blog to announce new stuff.  Would be happy to help from anyone interested once I get something set up.

[Erad67]

Interested in the info you noted here.  I have a silver pen, I think from the 1930s, I think made by Platinum.  I'll have to check if there's some sort of signature/stamp on it.

[PithyProlix]

On 11/29/2025 at 12:31 PM, Erad67 said:

I am hoping to start work on a website to compile info about Japanese pens.  (Bought a URL for it as well & already have a hosting service account.)  I'm not remotely as much of an expert on the topic as you, but I have noticed a lack of a place with a lot of info together.  Everything is very scattered.  I like pulling info together.  I'm thinking of having a message board like this for people to communicate with each other and a wiki to put info, maybe a blog to announce new stuff.  Would be happy to help from anyone interested once I get something set up.

 

Like @Scribs mentioned above, I too am saddened by what seems to me to be a large decrease in both quantity & quality as well as the departure of many great contributors, not just with the Japanese forum but all of FPN.

There is (I think, still) a Japanese fountain pen group on Facebook. It seemed good but I was kicked off of it suddenly and without explanation, with no response from the admin when I asked why and what I could do to be reinstated as a member of that group.

While I'd prefer that this forum be the premier English language discussion group for Japanese fountain pens, I did create a group for vintage Japanese pen discussion on Reddit. I think Reddit is the probably the current most popular site for discussion groups though it has some limitations that FPN doesn't have. As of now the group is just a stub with nothing more than a welcome message only but it is open to start posting on. Please feel free to start contributing if you want: https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageJapanesePens/

[PithyProlix]

On 11/24/2025 at 9:33 PM, stan said:

This is NOT about Dunhill-Namiki, Pilot Kokkokai, or Plat 3776 artisan signatures. There are places elsewhere where that information is to be found.

 

@stan Can you please share the address of the place that has info on Platinum 3776 signatures?

[mke]

13 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

not just with the Japanese forum but all of FPN

You can see this in other forums too. The number of people contributing something useful have drastically decreased.

Even the number of people reading posts have fallen into the abyss.

This has certainly to do with people preferring videos/reels or whatever they are called on Youtube, Instagram and Tiktok. 

People producing content also moved to these services - because they get paid.

 

But people come back when they want to ask "How much can I get from selling this or that pen? Tell me everything I need to know about the pen". 

 

I do not check the facebook groups anymore, some moderators there are too authoritarian for my taste and otherwise I dispise Meta.

[mke]

On 11/29/2025 at 2:31 PM, Erad67 said:

I am hoping to start work on a website to compile info about Japanese pens.  (Bought a URL for it as well & already have a hosting service account.)  I'm not remotely as much of an expert on the topic as you, but I have noticed a lack of a place with a lot of info together.  Everything is very scattered.  I like pulling info together.  I'm thinking of having a message board like this for people to communicate with each other and a wiki to put info, maybe a blog to announce new stuff.  Would be happy to help from anyone interested once I get something set up.

 

You have a target which will be difficult to reach, https://estilofilos.blogspot.com/ is years ahead. Additionally, I am pretty sure that you will be on your own to write a wiki, apart from spammers who will invade it quickly. Good luck anyway.

[Number99]

On 2025/11/28 at 午後12時56分, stan said:

Thanks, anyway.

So far either not much interest or those with older pens are no longer here.

 

Post will be deleted in a week or so if no interest.

 

I don't think there were any requests this year to decipher the craftsman's signature on Urushi/Makie fountain pens ( I don't recall any ). There were maybe two requests to decipher the engraving by the pen's original owner.

Searching this subforum for "signature" only shows three posts, and they're unrelated to deciphering requests.

It's been four years since I started visiting FPN, and even during that time, I don't think it happened very often. (Maybe two or three times a year...? I don't think it happened that much...)

 

So I don't think it's strange to wait a month and still have no requests.

 

I occasionally receive requests via PM for signatures or other non-commercial Japanese deciphering/translation work from people I know. Going forward, I plan to encourage those people to provide information here instead.

 

While it's possible to borrow images from Japanese websites, this is prohibited due to Japan's strict copyright laws. Furthermore, the terms of service for websites like Yahoo! Auctions do not permit even linking to product pages, so it's not feasible…

 

 

Edited December 3, 2025 by Number99

[mke]

To see signature requests or comments on FPN, see

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=016372583718073050395:1rsitsemrpo

Just search for "signature makie".

[jandrese]

Very few people collect vintage urushi and maki-e pens. Very few people visit the forums and even fewer contribute. It’s a numbers game. Very few of very few would have an interest and very few of those are collecting off brand vintage urushi and maki-e pens. Some of the very few would find the information helpful and interesting, and that may be enough to make it worth offering. 

 

I think, for those of us in the weeds, we have no idea what people are interested in. I brought half a dozen Namiki Emperors the first time I attended my local pen group meeting. They barely got any attention while stickers, prices on Alibaba, and ink swatching filled the time. 

[Number99]

10 hours ago, mke said:

To see signature requests or comments on FPN, see

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=016372583718073050395:1rsitsemrpo

Just search for "signature makie".

 

Zero result… One unrelated.…

Why specify an exact match search with double quotes? Using Simple Search yields tons of irrelevant results, there are zero results for this year, but, even though there should be at least a few over the past 20 years.

 

[mke]

11 minutes ago, Number99 said:

Why specify an exact match search with double quotes?

 

You don't know how to quote correctly.

> Just search for "signature makie".

That means that someone should search for the words signature and makie, nothing else. It separates the search words from my text.

 

I said

> To see signature requests or comments

 

This e.g. comes up - not exactly zero and it goes on - if it is helpful to Stan is his decision, I only mentioned that the linked search is better than the official search:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/363938-vintage-maki-e-pen-identification/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/372683-request-for-1930s-vintage-platinum-maki-e-fountain-pen-by-rosui/

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313438-mystery-pilot-1978-makie-fountain-pen-with-flying-birds/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/375583-1950s-japan-pen-identification/

 

 

[Number99]

59 minutes ago, mke said:

 

You don't know how to quote correctly.

> Just search for "signature makie".

That means that someone should search for the words signature and makie, nothing else. It separates the search words from my text.

 

I said

> To see signature requests or comments

 

This e.g. comes up - not exactly zero and it goes on - if it is helpful to Stan is his decision, I only mentioned that the linked search is better than the official search:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/363938-vintage-maki-e-pen-identification/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/372683-request-for-1930s-vintage-platinum-maki-e-fountain-pen-by-rosui/

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/313438-mystery-pilot-1978-makie-fountain-pen-with-flying-birds/

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/375583-1950s-japan-pen-identification/

 

 

 

Please be aware that when double quotation marks are used directly as search terms in a search context, they indicate an Exact Match Search command. If you intend a simple search, please adjust your query accordingly.

It is more considerate to provide a link than to expect viewers to check through a large number of SERPs.

 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Number99
Changing line break positions.

[mke]

45 minutes ago, Number99 said:

Please be aware that when double quotation marks are used directly as search terms in a search context, they indicate an Exact Match Search command. If you intend a simple search, please adjust your query accordingly.

You don't understand what I said.

 

Anyway. 

[Number99]

Please refrain from complaining to me about it.

Edited December 4, 2025 by Number99
Change in wording.

[Penguincollector]

@stan, while I don’t have any vintage maki-e pens to ask about (I have a few modern ones), I really enjoyed our conversation this past weekend on vintage maki-e (your pens are gorgeous) and the article you wrote in the Pennant. I would love to learn more about maki-e and the artisans involved. 

[Scribs]

On 12/4/2025 at 9:59 PM, Penguincollector said:

@stan, while I don’t have any vintage maki-e pens to ask about (I have a few modern ones), I really enjoyed our conversation this past weekend on vintage maki-e (your pens are gorgeous) and the article you wrote in the Pennant. I would love to learn more about maki-e and the artisans involved. 

 

I too would love to learn more about maki-e and the artisans involved 🙂