Namiki Yukari Fountain Pen – Milky Way

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The Namiki Yukari Milky Way depicts on its barrel the Lyra constellation, located in the northern hemisphere and dominated by the bright Vega, while the Aquila constellation, located near the celestial equator and its main star Altair, are highlighted on the cap.

Gold powder streaks (Hira maki-e) wrap themselves elegantly around the pen body covered with black urushi lacquer, to illustrate the Milky Way that crosses the night sky. They are enhanced by a fine sprinkling of dry vermilion lacquer particles, due to a delicate technique of Maki-e, Shu-kanshitsu. The stars of the constellations are represented by inlays of small gold circles and silver as well as mother of pearl ones very finely cut in shellfish (oysters abalone …) by means of Raden technique. These pearly slices present amazing shades due to a second very special technique, Fuse-zaishiki, which consist in colouring the back of the shell pieces to be encrusted so that the added colour combines by transparency with its iridescent aspect.

Namiki’s Yukari Collection illustrates natural imagery of the four seasons through various techniques, often in combination, including Togidashi Maki-e, or burnished raised maki-e, and Raden. The making of a Maki-e piece is an extremely labour and time-intensive process involving a repetitive series of applying layers of lacquer, drawing the design outline, sprinkling gold and silver powders to fill in the designs, and polishing to achieve a lustrous surface. The lacquered main design is filled in with the carefully sprinkled gold and silver powders, and then several additional layers of lacquer are applied. Once these layers harden, the surface is polished many times. A finished product can take up to 3 months, and some of the pieces go through the repetitive lacquer-drawing-sprinkling-polishing process up to 130 times. 

The extraordinary No.10 18ct gold nib with the image of Mount Fuji completes each model and is available in Fine, Medium and Broad sizes.