History of HAKASE

With the skills of Yoshio’s apprentice, craftsman Harumi Tanaka (1937-), and an idea from  CEO Masaaki Yamamoto , the company began hand-making custom-made fountain pens.

With the diversification of writing instruments and the spread of word processors and PCs, fountain pens themselves were no longer selling. Specialist fountain pen stores were disappearing. Our company was no exception and was struggling. Before giving up as a fountain pen professional, we decided to take on one last challenge and released the world’s first custom-made fountain pen, with pen point sharpening and nib adjustment based on a writing habit diagnosis and handcrafted by woodworkers. Together with the surviving craftsmen, we repaired and revived rusty machines and tools, searched the world for the raw material ebonite, and revived celluloid in Japan.