In this first blog from Penac of Great Britain, let us start at the beginning and have a look at the history of writing instruments in Japan.

With the entry of Penac products to Great Britain, we join a long and illustrious history of Japanese stationary.

The brush was the first manufactured writing instrument in Japan, with calligraphy brushes made of wood and animal hair being extant from the Heian Period (794-1185). Ink at this time would usually be made from a combination of pine soot and animal skin glue. This allowed early Japanese writers to use the Kana syllabary, a writing system that had grown from the Chinese Kanji characters and was the start of a uniquely Japanese script.

Over the following centuries and during the Edo Period (1603-1868), brush technology saw development and refinement, as well as the perfection of ink sticks, solid blocks of ink that become useable and liquid when friction is applied: making ink transportable and practical. With the Meiji Period (1868-1912) and Japan’s forced opening to the world, stationary saw the rapid influence of modernisation and westernisation -- as with all other aspects of Japanese society and culture -- meaning in this case the introduction of Western-style pens and pencils.

The 20^th Century saw Japan place themselves at the forefront of stationary design, with beginnings in domestic production very quickly blossoming into market leaders in design and innovation. Companies such as Sailor began the production of beautifully lacquered fountain pens in the 1910s and the industry steadily grew from here. The 1940s saw the introduction of the ballpoint pen and the rise of mass production. Early plastics like ebonite and celluloid were easier and faster materials with which to produce pen casings compared to previous methods.

A true big bang moment in Japanese stationary came with the introduction of the Midori business planner in 1952. Initially, it served as a corporate gift and circulated in offices as a desk-mate and business organiser. However, from the modest journal grew “Tēcho Culture” or planner culture, which celebrates the joys of organising and expressing your life on paper. Tēcho Culture flourishes to this day, allowing for artistic and poetic expressions of organisation. Decorating pages with drawings, quotes, coloured inks, washi tape - you name it, they’ve done it!

The 1950s also saw the introduction of the push button mechanical pencil as well as the plastic eraser. The felt-tip was developed by Pentel in the early 1960s. After a slow start, the humble felt-tip was propelled to fame by President Lyndon B Johnson. It was his number one choice for signing glossy photographs.

The 1970s saw a wonderful invention that took Japanese stationary back to its roots with the invention of the brush pen. These brushes were fuelled by internal ink cartridges just like a pen, allowing beautiful calligraphic work to be undertaken without the fuss and mess of ink stones. The decade also saw the release of the first highlighter.

The 1980s was a time of innovation in ink technology, with various companies coming up with new inks for ballpoint pens, as well as the invention of gel ink and the gel pen, allowing the 1990s to be a riot of colour! Teachers and students wrote in multiple colours helping to fascinate the eye and the brain.

The new millennium has seen the ascendancy of multifunction pens. Companies are investigating more ways that pens can meet the needs of consumers, such as soft and silent clicks to reduce irritation to those sensitive to noise. Now, we can but glimpse the future of many more exciting developments to come; share the journey with us as we play a part in it.

The best part of the 1990s for us was 1994. The Kotobuki Group launched Penac. Previously, Kotobuki had functioned as a research and development company; their designs and innovations feature in pens and pencils from many leading brands. Penac is their global brand, with thirty years of success in the European, South American and Middle Eastern markets. Now, we can finally bring these design-led writing instruments to Britain.

It is often a mystery to a nation to find themselves suddenly the vogue of design and production, as Japan has done in various areas of ever since western access was first granted in the 1860s. Where writing instruments are concerned, this is partly thanks to the fact that handwriting in everyday life is a central aspect of work and culture. With a complex written language to master and convey, one needs the right tools. This means the demand for high-quality stationary has been a constant in Japan, and that this has become admired and desired in the world beyond.