Fountain Pen Found In Japanese Shipwreck

[Number99]

Hello.

 

 I am still new to this forum, so I was hesitant to publish information about pen manufacturers.

 

 Therefore, after obtaining advice from experienced members, I will publish the following information based on the following grounds at my own discretion.

 

*The courageous sufficient explanation, including harsh expressions by the members have been given to the suspected cases of cheating.

 

* Non-disclosure of information will lead to the disadvantage of this forum.

 

: I found the confirmation of "青島" SEITO (W).

 I don't know about SEITŌ.

 At that time, it seems that there were 2600 fountain pen makers in Japan . With this number, there must have been duplication of company names.

 

 Nagasumi-cho, Asakusa-ku, Tokyo (Asakusa Nagasumi-cho, Taito-ku, Tokyo)

 

 Seitow Fountain Pen Honpo, AOSIMA Seisakusho SEITOW

 

東京市浅草区永住町（東京都台東区浅草永住町）

 

セートー萬年筆本舗、青島製作所 SEITOW

 

 If you search the net for this maker, you will find hits in various places (including posts in this forum).

 The price of the pen is about $ 15 as a restoration base.

 In addition, Google Translate tends to mistranslate AOSIMA as Qingdao in China. Of course, the English notation is also different.

 

 Here is the link to the blog that was the source of the information.Please add Japanese to the search language.

Try collating the logo mark.

  I have a 80% or better chance of matching and a 40% or better chance of mismatching, I have that impression.

 You may be able to find other information at this blog by using Google Translate and so on.

https://ameblo.jp/kamisama-samasama/entry-11636094605.html

 

And "FLARZ" also hit some.

http://entotsu.seesaa.net/article/303422274.html?amp=1

 

https://soloplumas.blogspot.com/2007/08/marcas-de-estilograficas-japon.html?m=1

 

https://estilograficabcn.blogspot.com/2021/03/o-hashido-pequenos-fabricantes.html?m=1

 

Two of the three links are Spanish websites, so if you add a search language and search, you'll get a lot of hits.

"FLARZ" is a brand name that Romanizes the sounds of the words "振らず" and "hurazu", which means that "You do not have to shake" in Japanese.

There is a description about "Hiratsuka" in the article.

This seems to be the fountain pen of "Sendai Ohashido", the company of the handmade fountain pen that is still open in Sendai Japan.

https://m.facebook.com/ohashido/

 

Participating in this thread made me a little more interested in "Old Japanese Fountainpens".

*I'm sorry.

The third link is incorrect, but it is valid as a reference material, so I will omit the correction.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Number99
A slight addition.

[seven4times]

Yes, the Kamisama blog is a great gift to the hobby, I've likely spent around 50 hours in total researching the photos and posts.

 

In regards to the post you linked, I think it's likely that they changed the spelling of the name from Seitow -> Seito. Since both brands are made by Aoshima Seisakusho, and are clearly of very high quality. The booklet that you linked has the hallmarks of the early 30s. More specificaly 1931-1933. So there would be ample time from 1933-1937 for the name change to occur before the ban of gold. I left out 1938, since it wouldn't leave enough time for the pens with the changed name to be produced before the gold ban in the same year.

 

I was able to find an image of a box that says Kokuyo on it, alongside Seitow. How odd! Is it possible that this was the brand that is now Kokuyo (currently owners of pentel I believe)?

 

Edit: No, from the Kokuyo website the current name was adopted in 1961, well after the box would have been made. Still a fascinating coincidence that leaves me a bit suspicious.

 

Another note about the box, and something that shows the market they were going after... the trademark logo on the left is clearly 'inspired by' (if not, a copy of) the style of Itoya's old logo. Itoya are known to have created the pinnacle of pre-war Japanese pens, and likely had a price to match.

 

It's interesting to me that you mention a common Chinese translation of Aoshima. I wonder if the company focused on exports. Other than Dunhill-Namiki, vintage Japanese export pens are a blackhole of information. In the US it's difficult to find any old chinese (or Italian) sources and from what I've seen there's no mention of any export business in the english and Japanese sources that are available. 

 

Nice find about Flarz. I thought for a moment that this was new information, but I've founf that the text in your linked article is taken directly from the book "Fountain pens of Japan". Anyways, Ohashido may represent the 2nd oldest Japanese pen lineage that still runs to this day, only behind Sailor. I'll now keep a mental note of these Flarz nibs, they're elegant looking.

 

I'm glad that this has sparked some interest in your country's stationary history. Thanks for your comments and effort, Number99. 

 

 

[Number99]

Hello.

 

The identity of "SEITOW", "SEITO" and "SEITŌ" can never go beyond the scope of "possibility" at this time, but I also support it because it is interesting as "possibility".

 However, since there were 2600 fountain pen makers at that time, it was inevitable that the company names would be duplicated, and I think there was also an intentional naming of the company name.

  KO-KU-KYO is spelled differently from KO-KU-YO.

 I'm not familiar with it, so it's a complete guess, but I guess it's a text that describes the brand, model, grade, etc. of this pen. It is difficult to guess the corresponding Chinese characters because there are innumerable combinations.

 About KOKUYO, it seems to be "国誉"（national honor）.

 

Regarding the age of the SEITOW catalog, the English translation is around 1945, but the original Japanese notation is around 昭和５年〜昭和１０年, so 1930 to 1935 is correct, why there is an error of 15 years. I wonder if it exists, but this is also an unreliable phenomenon of Google Translate.

 My reference to 青島AOSIMA's Chinese（Meaning of 漢字kan-ji Japanese） translation is an "obvious mistranslation" on the system due to the mechanical translation of Google Translate, but it not meaning general translation.

 These machine translation malfunctions promote a "confusing phenomenon between Japan and China" because it is "recognizable" for Japanese and Chinese people, but "indistinguishable" for people in other languages. I am anxious for improvement.

Chinese characters 

and Japanese kan-ji look the same, but their meanings, locations, and pronunciations are completely different.

Chinese and Japanese as languages are as far apart as English and Japanese.

 

 The logo is really similar to the "Itoya"（伊東屋 i-toh-ya） logo. Did they imitate? Are the designers the same? Which comes first? Why is that?

 It may have been an accepted act at that time because it was not an era when intellectual property rights were as strict as it is now.

 The similarity of logo mark design is an interesting event.

 

 As for searching the Internet, the search range can be expanded by enabling "Increase the search language" , so please give it a try.