Kakimori

Tokyo, Japan · Stationery

The stationery shop in Kuramae, Tokyo: notebooks to assemble, inks to mix, wooden pen holders and steel or brass nibs, made by Japanese craftsmen.

A brand that makes you want to write by hand, and one we regularly present at pop-up events.

Order on the B2B portal Online shop

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Kakimori in one minute

Our product video, shot by the agency. On the final site, it plays directly in the page; it is free for our retailers to use.

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The brand

Kakimori in detail

感情表現

The colour of feelings

Have you ever imagined an ink bar? Like a mixologist in search of new flavours, Kakimori has been exploring the world of colour for more than ten years and sets aside, in each of its shops, a space for creating colours to order: test tubes, pipettes, and inks mixed until the exact custom shade is obtained.

Kakimori inks are inspired by onomatopoeia and haiku that translate feelings into colours. Designer Makoto Koizumi drew the drop-shaped bottle: a flat, stable base and a 20 mm opening tilted at 8 degrees for dipping or filling your pens. Once dry, these pigment inks resist water and fading.

Sakura wood pen holder on its pen rest, with a bottle of ink

ペンホルダー

Pen holders

The natural sakura wood pen holder lets you discover the feel of wood: Japanese cherry is known for its reddish colour, which deepens over time, and an ink-resistant finish ensures practicality while preserving the wood's natural appeal. The light version is cut from the pale, white sapwood of the cherry tree; the pen holders are made from solid wood and sorted by hand according to their colour.

The solid aluminium pen holder is machined and then hand-finished, for a smoothness only the hand can give and a pleasant, well-balanced weight. The urushi pen holder is stained with sumi ink and then lacquered black using the traditional fuki-urushi technique, which reveals the grain of the wood. The Tokushima indigo, finally, is hand-dyed by an aizome craftsman: the wood grain is heightened by the deep indigo finish. All of them sit in the hand like a standard pencil.

Natural sakura · light sakura · aluminium
Black urushi lacquer · Tokushima indigo
7 inches long, the comfort of a pencil

Kakimori pen nib fitted to a wooden pen holder

ペン先

Nibs

The pen nib offers the smooth writing feel of a fountain pen with no maintenance: after writing, simply rinse with water and dry. An ideal first nib for those discovering bottled ink. Hand-aligned for superior ink retention, it writes around one sentence per dip, and rigorous testing ensures it does not catch on the paper.

The stainless steel and brass nibs were born of the desire for a durable, practical dip nib: from fine to broad, the width of the line varies with the angle. Designed by Yuto Yamazaki of the Alloy studio in Kuramae, their rounded, meticulously polished tip offers a remarkably smooth writing experience. Refined over many iterations, these nibs are like no other.

カキモリステーショナリー

The Kakimori stationery shop in Kuramae

Opened in 2010 by Takuma Hirose, the Kakimori stationery shop is an ode to writing. From the front door, that distinctive coloured parquet floor, then rows of wooden shelves filled with pens, ink bottles and reams of paper, press studs, card covers and ribbons: everything you need to put together your own notebook.

Far from the bustle of Shibuya, Kakimori is located in the old manufacturing district of Kuramae, one of the oldest in Tokyo, where small traditional houses and workshops survive. By mastering the whole chain, from design to production, the brand revives a declining tradition of local, artisanal manufacturing. 1-6-2 Misuji, Taito-ku, Tokyo.

インキスタンド

Ink Stand

Inkstand's bespoke service was launched in 2014 to meet a demand for more personal colours. Customers are greeted by a wall of objects and their matching shades – a bright pink apple next to a fuchsia, a Liszt Liebestraum translated into pale pink – before entering the blending room.

Inside the lab, everyone receives a glass tube, a pen, paper and 17 inks, and experiments until the perfect shade is found. The recipe is recorded and turned into a 35 ml bottle. “The colour of a cat's eye is a regular request.”

In pictures