Nakaya: 147 of 149 Pens Are Ebonite — Titanium Exists Only in the Raiter Piccolo

Nakaya is a workshop that still hand-turns ebonite pen bodies on a lathe — a material most mass manufacturers abandoned long ago. Retailers commonly describe it as founded by a former Pilot fountain pen engineer.

147 of 149 are ebonite

We counted the 149 Nakaya pens in PencilDB by material.

Both titanium pens belong to a single model, the Raiter Piccolo. The other 13 models — Ryogiri, Cigar Long, Cigar Piccolo, Sefin 1 and 2, the 17mm Portable and Long, the leather-wrapped model, and more — are entirely ebonite. The line isn't drawn between material families; it runs through one model alone.

The nib and feed are said to match Pilot's

Nakaya's nib and feed units are frequently described by retailers as compatible with Pilot's Custom 823. PencilDB's own data can't confirm this, but if true, it means Nakaya uses Pilot's parts while a craftsman finishes each body by hand.

The names describe the painting itself

Look at the ebonite colour names and almost none are plain colours. "Rift of Hell." "Torn Shoji, Monstrous Cat." "One-Eyed Demon." "Blue-Banded Swallowtail." "Wisteria and Peacock." "Cat with a Ball of Yarn." Read the name and you already know what's painted on the barrel. Each design is built up in layers of urushi lacquer and cut back by hand — maki-e and chinkin techniques — so no two pens carry quite the same picture.

Names ending in "-damari" (pooled), like Kuro-damari, Heki-damari, and Toki-damari, describe a finish where a clear pooling lacquer sits over a coloured base to add depth. The same "-damari" suffix names a different base colour each time, so the colour name alone tells you how the lacquer was built up.