AboutUs

In February 2020, after many years at Sailor Pen, I left the company to strike out on my own. Before going independent, I travelled throughout Japan as a Sailor craftsman, conducting Pen Clinics.
Day to day, I performed Sailor’s distinctive Naginata-togi grind—developed by Nobuyoshi Nagahara and others—and adjusted specialty nibs.
In parallel, since around 1998 I had been learning fountain-pen repair and adjustment techniques from my father, Nobuyoshi Nagahara, the first generation.

As you know, from March 2020 the world was upended by COVID-19, and it was amid that turmoil that I began working independently.
Even then, I was given the opportunity to hold fee-based Pen Clinics at BUNGUBOX (Hamamatsu), which laid the groundwork for my life as a sole proprietor.

“I put everything into making you smile—work that delights and surprises”

Our motto is to strive to deliver the greatest possible satisfaction.
I also take pride in continuing this work with real romance.

Every fountain pen has a story. A pen once used by a parent or grandparent may be brought in years later so their child can write with it. Sometimes customers return with a pen that **my father, Nobuyoshi Nagahara—the first-generation master—**adjusted long ago; now, after time has passed, they bring it to his son—me, Yukio Nagahara—for adjustment. Pens almost always carry such histories.
Each day I’m reminded that this is a truly romantic line of work, and I feel fortunate to be entrusted with it.

I’m grateful to handle pens filled with precious memories—and I genuinely enjoy the work.
I’ll keep honing my craft every day so I can send you home with a smile.

A Job I’ll Never Forget

In this line of work, there are so many memorable jobs that it’s hard to choose just one.

At one Pen Clinic, a customer came to me asking to repair a fountain pen they had lent to their son.
As they explained, their son had been caught up in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and, tragically, went missing.
Yet the pen they had lent him before the disaster was the only thing that survived in recognizable form in their devastated home.

They had contacted the manufacturer, but were told the parts were no longer available and it could not be repaired. That’s when they found my Pen Clinic and brought the pen in.

When the repair was finished and the pen wrote again, the customer was genuinely overjoyed as they held it.
I was moved beyond words. I was simply grateful it could be brought back.

Born as the eldest son of the Nagahara family, he worked for a local company in Kure City until 2021.
In January 2022 he joined The Nib Shaper, apprenticing under his father, Yukio Nagahara, while steadily refining his craft.

In 2024 he left his hometown for a training stint at PenStyle DEN, the high-end writing instrument boutique of the well-known NAGASAWA Stationery Center in Kobe.
There, by engaging with customers who love not only fountain pens but also glass dip pens and a wide range of stationery, he deepened his knowledge of the industry and of fountain pens themselves.
The experience continues to inform and elevate his work as an artisan today.

“The moment a customer smiles means everything to me.”

Handing back a tuned pen and seeing a customer’s face light up the moment they start writing—that makes me genuinely happy. It’s an irreplaceable moment.
To keep seeing those smiles, I remind myself never to grow complacent and to keep striving every day for a higher level.

A Job I’ll Never Forget

My grandfather, Nobuyoshi Nagahara, left behind a mysterious fountain-pen model called “Shaper.” An enormous number of them—each one in pieces—were crammed into two large containers.
My father, Yukio Nagahara, gave me a mission: “Get every last one of these back into working order.”

So I assembled each pen from parts and tuned the nib until it wrote—every single one.
It took almost six months to finish the lot.

When I finally finished, I thought, “He really got me.” To my surprise, when I wrote with the very first pen I’d tuned and then with one of the last, the difference in the finish was like night and day.
Without even noticing, that six-month mission had loaded me up with a huge amount of knowledge and skill. I wouldn’t want to do it again—but wow, what training, I say with a laugh.