At Nohara Kogei, the price is set by the wood — not the pen
In Nagiso, deep in the Nagano mountains, there is a workshop that puts pens on sale roughly twice a year. Nohara Kogei began in 1923 as Sanzo Nohara's sawyer's business, and still turns every barrel individually using Nagiso rokuro-zaiku, a nationally designated traditional craft.
Because so few come out, used prices are famously well above retail. So what should you actually pick? Lay out every combination the workshop offers and a pattern appears that you would never notice one pen at a time.
The shape is not what sets the price
Nohara makes three ballpoints and two mechanical pencils — click, twist, slim, standard.
You would expect a different body to cost a different amount. In fact four of the five share exactly the same price span: ¥8,800 to ¥19,800. Changing the shape barely moves the money.
The timber does.
Prices fall into exactly four tiers, set by the wood
Sort one model's timbers by list price and they do not scatter. They land in four clean steps.
- ¥8,800 — mountain cherry, Kiso cypress, mulberry, plum, jujube, oak, zelkova, evergreen oak, walnut, painted maple
- ¥11,000 — Yakusugi cedar, buried zelkova, buried ash, rosewood, amboyna, black persimmon, purpleheart, claro walnut
- ¥13,200 — kingwood, sheoak, tulipwood, Huon pine
- ¥19,800 — Brazilian rosewood, top-grade black persimmon
Only two timbers reach the top step.
The cheapest tier hides something unusual
Look closely at the bottom tier and Kiso cypress is sitting in it. A workshop in Nagiso offers its own local cypress at the most accessible price of all.
Yet other Japanese timbers sit a step above: buried zelkova and buried ash. Jindai timber is dug out after centuries underground or underwater, and no two pieces can ever be repeated. Even among Japanese woods, the workshop draws a firm line.
You can match woods across models — but not all of them
Say you like a timber on a ballpoint and want the pencil to match. Your options are fixed.
Ten timbers are offered in all five shapes: black persimmon, top-grade black persimmon, amboyna, curly horse chestnut, claro walnut figure, kingwood, sheoak, tulipwood, Brazilian rosewood and Huon pine.
Four timbers appear in one shape only: Turkish walnut, rosewood, pagoda tree and zelkova. Those four cannot be matched no matter how long you wait.
Black persimmon comes in two grades
Scan the timber names and only one wood is split in two: black persimmon, and top-grade black persimmon. They sit at ¥11,000 and ¥19,800 — nearly double, for the same species.
Black persimmon is the dark figure that appears in a small part of some persimmon trees. Nobody knows how the figure will run until the log is opened, and the good ones are rare. That rarity is what the word "top-grade" is pricing.
What to decide before the sale opens
A twice-yearly release does not last long. There is little room to deliberate. What you *can* settle in advance is the timber.
- Shapes can be added later. If you want a matching set, choose from the ten offered in all five.
- Kiso cypress and mountain cherry sit in the most accessible tier.
- Brazilian rosewood and top-grade black persimmon are the top step, at roughly double.
PencilDB holds every combination this workshop makes, with the list price and the second-hand figure reported by owners side by side. A timber listed at ¥8,800 and one at ¥19,800 need not move the same way once it is resold. The more reports come in, the more sharply that difference shows.
(List prices include tax, as of August 2026. Company details from nohara.jp/about.html.)