Tsuchida / Ban-Ei Pens Or Not

[raivtash]

I recently gambled on this lot of three pens, advertised as Tsuchida/ban-ei pens and they were not cheap.

 

The three pens measured at 140, 145, 150cm respectively. Whereas the 145 pen is a ban-ei for sure, as the nib bears G.K. print and same as the Danitrio ban-ei.

A comparison with Dani ban-ei.

 

 

I have doubts about the other two. The 150cm jumbo pen with the large 60 nib is a fantastic pen and true joy to write with. the nib writes very similar to the G.K. nib but more flexible. But the feed looks quite different.

 

The 140cm pen is a Kamakura-bori construction with a flexible nib. Fantastic writer too, but I am least sure that this is a Ban-ei.

 

All pens are great writers and all require a new seal, which I have not figured out how to do.

[25_15_3]

Something I always wonder about when browsing for Japanese eyedroppers is the concern with the seal. I'm not sure if there are many pen repair people who work with this filling system.

 

Lovely pens though. Best of luck with repair work.

[stan]

Why worry if they are Banei or by Tsuchida? There were several makers who could have made the pens. All are good.

Seal can be easily fixed. Reach out to eckiethump.

[raivtash]

  On 5/25/2016 at 4:00 AM, stan said:

Why worry if they are Banei or by Tsuchida? There were several makers who could have made the pens. All are good.

Seal can be easily fixed. Reach out to eckiethump.

Thanks for the info. Is eckiethump based in US?

There are two reasons why I want the ban-ei. One really is just for the sake of collection, I'd like to know the maker. The second reason is I am particularly fond of the nib made by neibmeister G.K. I would like to collect more pens with nib made by him.

[stan]

  On 5/25/2016 at 11:58 PM, raivtash said:

Thanks for the info. Is eckiethump based in US?

There are two reasons why I want the ban-ei. One really is just for the sake of collection, I'd like to know the maker. The second reason is I am particularly fond of the nib made by neibmeister G.K. I would like to collect more pens with nib made by him.

Do you know who G.K. is?

Initials are for Kabutogi Ginjiro who is considered one of the best postwar nib makers.

 

For almost all of the torpedo pens, it is all but impossible to know the maker unless it came in a box.

[raivtash]

  On 5/26/2016 at 12:29 AM, stan said:

Do you know who G.K. is?

Initials are for Kabutogi Ginjiro who is considered one of the best postwar nib makers.

 

For almost all of the torpedo pens, it is all but impossible to know the maker unless it came in a box.

Yes. I do know who G.K. is and I have one nib bears this initial.

I think you are right that we can barely tell who made those pens. But the G.K. nib is quite different and I think I can feel the difference. I believe that the danitrio's Ban-Ei nib was made by G.K.'s son. I compared the two nibs. They wrote almost the same except the Dani Ban-ei is slightly finer.

I notice that the tsuchida pen with box and paper usually does not have the G.K. print, whereas the pens that have G.K. print usually does not have a box.

I have one more G.K. print pen and two more dani ban-ei style nibs are on the way.

[mchenart]

Hi Raivtash. If you are interested in Kabutogi nibs, perhaps you can take a look at a thread I wrote on Fountain Pen Congress' website a couple of years back. It is in Chinese. Like you, there are many pen lovers in Taiwan who are also interested in his nibs, and would seek out pens bearing his initials or JIS numerical imprints '3233' or '4622'. I am by no means an expert on Kobutogi nibs. Perhaps there are Japanese members of this forum who can enlighten us on this subject?

http://pennote.idv.tw/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2520

Edited May 26, 2016 by mchenart

[raivtash]

  On 5/26/2016 at 1:28 PM, mchenart said:

Hi Raivtash. If you are interested in Kabutogi nibs, perhaps you can take a look at a thread I wrote on Fountain Pen Congress' website a couple of years back. It is in Chinese. Like you, there are many pen lovers in Taiwan who are also interested in his nibs, and would seek out pens bearing his initials or JIS numerical imprints '3233' or '4622'. I am by no means an expert on Kobutogi nibs. Perhaps there are Japanese members of this forum who can enlighten us on this subject?

http://pennote.idv.tw/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2520

 

great info. Thanks. The large 150cm 60 nib pen did have imprints of "4622". I was wondering what 4622 stands for last night. So at least I can confirm the nib is a Kabutogi.

[mchenart]

According to my limited research, Ginjiro Kabutogi was born in 1908 and passed away in 1997. JIS (Japan Industrial Standard?) began issuing certification on fountain pen nibs in 1952, probably to ensure the correct content of gold in 14k or 18k nibs. Kabutogi applied successfully for the JIS number of 3233 first, and later obtained another number 4622. There could be more numbers atrributed to him. So if you find these numbers engraved on a nib, you can be certain that these were made by the nibmeister.

 

A few years back, I bought an interesting Diamond DIA fountain pen circa 1957 in Japan, and discovered the engravings of Steady and 3233. I have since found a number of Steady nibs both with and without a JIS number, which led me to believe that Kabutogi used Steady as his brand name to supply nibs to other pen makers. It is just my guess.

 

As for Ban-ei pens, most of their pre-1997 offerings would have Kabutogi nibs, many of them have the initials GK engraved at the base of the nibs. Shortly after the nibmeister's demise, I believe the Ban-ei workshop continued to use GK nibs until the supply ran out. His son then stepped in to help with th nibs, but these are engraved 'Reissued Nibs' in Kanji with a JIS logo. You can still find many of these nibs on Ban-ei pens in the general circulation.

 

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae33/mchenart/DSCF5085_zpsyqousill.jpg

[raivtash]

mchenart, thank you for the valuable info.

recently I found a Steady nib that actually comes with a different JIS number (looks like"4266", I am waiting a clear picture of the nib; but the last two digits are clearly 66).

I have found a couple of Ban-Ei pens with the "reissued nib" and am considering to acquire them.

What is curious to me is who made the Danitrio Ban-Ei nibs. I have heard from some source that those nibs were more likely made by G.K.'s son.

[mchenart]

Bernard Lyn, founder of Danitrio wrote the book Maki-e, an Art for the Soul- The Danitrio Maki-e Collection in which he sheds light on his encounter with members of the Ban-ei workshop. In the last chapter- Ban-ei Collection- he recounts his first conversation with Tsuchida at his Tokyo home in April 1997, the year Ginjiro Kabutogi died. He notes that the senior Kabutogi has already been replaced by his son in the workshop. So from this, we can assume that the Danitrio Ban-ei nibs were either made or adjusted by the young Kabutogi.

Edited May 28, 2016 by mchenart

[raivtash]

Exactly. I have read that piece. The Danitrio ban-eis were a limited production of a couple of hundreds with five different variants. The pens listed here and other places however all bear a very small numbers,like two digits, is it possible that they actually didn't make so many pens?

 

Also I got confirmation that the Steady nib comes with 4366 ijs number. Have you seen this is before?

[raivtash]

The middle. The right is parley nib, presumably made by another great japanese nib master.

[raivtash]

here is the photo

[mchenart]

This is like doing detective work, raivtash!

 

  On 5/27/2016 at 3:34 PM, raivtash said:

Exactly. I have read that piece. The Danitrio ban-eis were a limited production of a couple of hundreds with five different variants. The pens listed here and other places however all bear a very small numbers,like two digits, is it possible that they actually didn't make so many pens?

 

I have no idea how many of the stated number of Ban-ei pens were made. I suppose only Bernard Lyn would know. The edition number of my black Danitrio Ban-ei is '014 of 200'. Very low number indeed.

 

Nibs with a 4366 JIS number correspond to the nibmeister Hatanaka Kouseido, according to the Sunami/Lambrou book. I have not seen any of his nibs before. The search continues....

[raivtash]

I only have the black version. Mine is 15.

[stan]

Nibs marked Steady are the most common of the better nibs to be found.

Simply because it has a number does not mean it is a better nib.

 

A collection of a pen with one nib mark of each nib making company would be interesting.

Probably impossible to achieve.

[raivtash]

Hi Stan, Is "Steady" a trade mark or just something like "Warranted" that any nib makers could use?