Pen Posse Maruzen Ink Frenzy Part Deux

[AltecGreen]

Let's have another holiday Pen Posse. Gale Pedowitz has returned from Japan with another haul of Maruzen ink. You have been warned. It was a feeding frenzy the last time. Don;t make me take all of the ink home.





Saturday December 28th

12:00 pm



Peter's Cafe
10 El Camino Real
Millbrae, CA 94030

[Farmboy]

Is the FPN thing down, I note you posted here this time.

[ac12]

FPN has been down since last night.

[Farmboy]

Not surprising, no one goes there anymore it is too crowded.

[Jon Szanto]

Yeah, it's like the Guangzhou of fountain pen conglomerations.

[Jerome Tarshis]

Confused as I am by FarmBoy's surprised observation that (gasp!) AltecGreen has posted this announcement here rather than at FPN, no doubt AG's first posting to FPGeeks, I slunk away to find out more about Maruzen and its inks. Thanks to Google Books, q.v., my cup runneth over, although not with Athena ink. I found a couple of snippets from Reflections in a Glass Door, a book of/about informal writings by the eminent fiction writer Soseki Natsume, fl. quite a long time ago.

He (the great writer) reports going to Maruzen and buying two Pelican (sic) fountain pens, but here the (sic) is not one of accusation, but rather a cry for help. The note on this passage indicates that Pelican was an English brand. Can anyone speak to this?

Those either Japanese by origin or better educated than I am may wish to look up Uchida Roan, friend of the great writer, himself editor of Maruzen's house magazine, crazed for mannenhitsu (FPs), author of an essay on the history of the fountain pen, said to have been introduced into Japan c. 1880. This is potentially rich stuff. (Soseki Natsume could really write, or so my younger self thought.) I understand that everyone else in this thread may know all about this, but I dwell in ignorance. "He needs help," might be the universal opinion, and I hope to get some on this teasing subject.

[Goldfish]

Confused as I am by FarmBoy's surprised observation that (gasp!) AltecGreen has posted this announcement here rather than at FPN, no doubt AG's first posting to FPGeeks, I slunk away to find out more about Maruzen and its inks. Thanks to Google Books, q.v., my cup runneth over, although not with Athena ink. I found a couple of snippets from Reflections in a Glass Door, a book of/about informal writings by the eminent fiction writer Soseki Natsume, fl. quite a long time ago.

He (the great writer) reports going to Maruzen and buying two Pelican (sic) fountain pens, but here the (sic) is not one of accusation, but rather a cry for help. The note on this passage indicates that Pelican was an English brand. Can anyone speak to this?

Those either Japanese by origin or better educated than I am may wish to look up Uchida Roan, friend of the great writer, himself editor of Maruzen's house magazine, crazed for mannenhitsu (FPs), author of an essay on the history of the fountain pen, said to have been introduced into Japan c. 1880. This is potentially rich stuff. (Soseki Natsume could really write, or so my younger self thought.) I understand that everyone else in this thread may know all about this, but I dwell in ignorance. "He needs help," might be the universal opinion, and I hope to get some on this teasing subject.

This page is in Japanese but talks about the Pelican Soseki might have used, with a photo and ads. Pelican pens were made by De La Rue company of England (Onoto), and sold by Maruzen in Japan. The author (also the owner of a famous vintage pen store in Ginza) says so far he found seven models of Pelicans but it's not clear which model Soseki used.

http://www.euro-box.com/content/news/374

Apparently the Pelican pens didn't work well for Soseki and he didn't like it. He actually wrote a short essay titled 'The Fountain Pens and I'. http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148...2675_6508.html

[Jerome Tarshis]

Thanks to Goldfish for coming through with further information for me. Soseki's essay on his experience with his two Pelican fountain pens (being frustrated by them, he went back to writing with a dip pen, presumably being unable to find a nice Zebra BP at Maruzen owing to having been born too soon) is quoted, I think not in its entirety, in Reflections in a Glass Door. So I've read his remarks in English.

It is a step forward to learn that the Pelican in question was a product of Onoto de la Rue, not a Heidelberg product of an earlier date than we know about. The other point of interest is that Maruzen published a house magazine edited by a seemingly ambitious literary man, Uchida, and that some degree of pen madness existed in Japan, associated perhaps with writers of some stature. I do not have any Japanese, but I ask myself how much of this information has gotten into English or French by osmosis over the years. FP craziness did not entirely originate in the 1980s.

[Goldfish]

Thanks Jerome, I didn't realize the essay was in Glass Door, too.

For others who are interested in English translation of Soseki's essay on fountain pens, here's a link. There were fountain pen collectors hundred years ago (it was written in 1912) !!

http://books.google.com/books?id=fHX...tput=html_text

[ac12]

FPN is still down, I wonder what they are doing?

[Jerome Tarshis]

@ac12: Try FPN again in about a week. Wim has posted an explanation in this thread:

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread....anned-from-FPN

[Farmboy]

FPN is still down, I wonder what they are doing?

Looking for the Internet I'd guess. It can't possibly take a week to move the data.

[ac12]

FPN is still down, I wonder what they are doing?

Looking for the Internet I'd guess. It can't possibly take a week to move the data.

I agree.
Maybe it is a ground up server rebuild (new server), including sourcing parts.
Sourcing of parts I can see taking a while for shipping.

[Farmboy]

FPN is still down, I wonder what they are doing?

Looking for the Internet I'd guess. It can't possibly take a week to move the data.

I agree.
Maybe it is a ground up server rebuild (new server), including sourcing parts.
Sourcing of parts I can see taking a while for shipping.

I assume the wafers entered the FAB at least a week ago...

[bleair]

After googling Maruzen's inks and finding a few examples on FPN (before they decided to go fully-radio-cold to rebuild from raw fab wafers I was really excited by these inks. They look really out of the norm. I am dismayed that Christina and I will miss this pen posse meeting, due to holiday travel. Any chance I could ask one of you to hang onto a sample or two of this ink? I'd love to try any of these inks, and since one can't easily get them without making a trip to Japan I feel especially sad to miss this posse meeting. I'd happily trade inks (I have some penman sapphire and a few other colors) or tomoe paper or something in exchange.

Happy Holidays!

[AltecGreen]

After googling Maruzen's inks and finding a few examples on FPN (before they decided to go fully-radio-cold to rebuild from raw fab wafers I was really excited by these inks. They look really out of the norm. I am dismayed that Christina and I will miss this pen posse meeting, due to holiday travel. Any chance I could ask one of you to hang onto a sample or two of this ink? I'd love to try any of these inks, and since one can't easily get them without making a trip to Japan I feel especially sad to miss this posse meeting. I'd happily trade inks (I have some penman sapphire and a few other colors) or tomoe paper or something in exchange.

Happy Holidays!

Not a problem. I have several bottles and I'm sure we can make something happen. Let me know the next time you make a posse.

[ac12]

Ricky,

Would you email Gail for me.
If no one got the bright blue Pilot ink (I think it was Kon-Peki), my wife would like it.
I can get it from her the next time she comes to a Pen Posse.

Thanks
Gary

[tenney]

Damn, missed it because I didn't know. I wish there were a way to get emails when a posse was scheduled!

Oh, and I *did* check here Monday or Tuesday to see... but before 6pm Tuesday night when Ricky posted this. I guessed that a few days ahead of time would be long enough for a warning. Sigh.

[AltecGreen]

Damn, missed it because I didn't know. I wish there were a way to get emails when a posse was scheduled!

Oh, and I *did* check here Monday or Tuesday to see... but before 6pm Tuesday night when Ricky posted this. I guessed that a few days ahead of time would be long enough for a warning. Sigh.

What you don't check this site everyday? GASP!

[AltecGreen]

Ricky,

Would you email Gail for me.
If no one got the bright blue Pilot ink (I think it was Kon-Peki), my wife would like it.
I can get it from her the next time she comes to a Pen Posse.

Thanks
Gary

No problem.

It will have to wait till she gets back from Japan.