Since its inception, Pilot has designed fountain pens that make every word a pleasure to write. Their instruments offer a smooth, consistent glide, ideal for taking notes, drawing or signing with elegance. Combining modern design and reliability, the fountain pens accompany your ideas every day, turning every page into a moment of pleasure. Iroshizuku inks offer exceptional Japanese quality, with perfect fluidity and vibrant colours. Each fountain pen ink reveals subtle hues, often inspired by Japanese nature. Combine your fountain pens with reliable, elegant accessories designed for demanding everyday use. Converters, cases and nibs compatible with your Pilot fountain pens. Each accessory reflects the brand’s Japanese quality and attention to detail.
The story behind the brand :
The birth of the Pilot brand is a fascinating story. In 1918, Ryosuke Namiki was dissatisfied with the writing and drawing instruments on the market. As a teacher at the Tokyo Merchant Marine School, he wanted to improve them for his professional needs. So he made his first pen nib using gold for the body. He used osmiridium (an alloy of iridium, osmium, ruthenium, platinum, rhodium and gold) for the tip. It was such a revolution that he and his colleague Masao Wada set up the Namiki Manufacturing Company to manufacture nibs.
Ryosuke Namiki soon began designing fountain pens. To protect them from scratches, he patented a process for applying lacquer to ebonite. This urushi lacquer comes exclusively from an Asian tree, the Japanese varnish. Applied in many layers (up to 20), it gives the fountain pen an incomparable shine and brilliance.
Decisive encounters
Ryosuke Namiki travelled the world to present his pens and formed a partnership with Alfred Dunhill of Great Britain to market them under the Dunhill-Namiki Fountain Pen brand. In 1930, in order to develop this art and enhance his models, Ryosuke Namiki joined forces with Gonroku Matsuda. The man is a master lacquerer and famous maki-e artist. They found together the Kokkokai art school within his company. The maki-e technique (meaning “sprinkled paint”) involves blowing gold powder onto a previously drawn and still damp pattern on the lacquered piece. This school still exists today, and magnificent models are made there every day.
To cope with the ever-growing market after the war, the founder decided to market less luxurious (unlacquered) pieces under the Pilot brand. In 1963, the first fountain pen without a cap was born: the Capless. This instrument featured a complex precision mechanism that lowered the fountain pen by rotating the barrel. The next version, in 1964, allowed the nib to be extended and retracted simply by pressing a button at the opposite end of the pen. Today, this revolutionary pen is still so successful that Pilot has created the Capless LS (Luxury & Silence). This new model is designed to be both luxurious and quieter. In addition to the plunger that extends the nib, a small fin at the top of the Capless LS retracts it.
