Danitrio Maki-e Ascendant Dragon at Mt. Fuji Fountain Pen on Takumi with Clip
The art on this Danitrio pen is based off of illustrations from a wood block print book from the Edo period. The books were titled ‘One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji’. Dragons have long been a legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. Mt Fuji, which is the countries tallest peak, often has it’s iconic profile as the inspiration to numerous works of art.
This pen is the work of one of the new generation artists, Hironobu.
When a student wants to learn from a master, he or she has to work for the master only and even stays at the master’s house. When he is released by the master it means that he can be independent, but what he learned was ONLY from his master, and so his works will be mostly under his master’s influence. But a young man like Hironobu san, who graduated from two different art schools after six years learned from many different masters, and then came home to work with his father, already a master, showing his works are fresh, very colorful and dynamic even compare with all our collections.
Danitrio makes remarkable hand painted pens using the Japanese skill and craftsmanship that has been mastered over the last few thousand of years. Good basic paintings start with base painting, which the craftsmen paint twice or three times with Urushi mixed with finishing powders to make the base hard and durable. Then followed by the interim paintings which is done by one or two layers preparing for finishing paintings.
The base for Urushi paintings must be smooth and strong in order to have a good Urushi painting, which will last thousands of years. When the base is ready for painting, the first painting uses Sabi, Urushi mixed with polishing powders, as its base painting and call it Shita-nuri, the base painting. Then, Naka-nuri, the interim painting with Urushi is preparing for better Uwa-nuri, the finishing part of painting. The color of the interim painting has to be selected according to the color of the finishing part of painting. All these works are usually done by Nu-shi, craftsmen of Urushi paintings, painting 7 times in average and it takes 2-3 weeks before the Nu-shi can send back the pens to our Maki-e sh, who will do more Urushi painting works or Maki-e onto the pens.
Craftsmen call Urushi is a living thing. Its qualities differ even from the same trees, for example quality is different from the trunk or branches. Different qualities from different trees or different areas or countries. Then, crude Urushi must be refined to make more than 10 different qualities of Urushi for different usage. Genuine Urushi is like pure gold only for fine jewelry and pure gold is too expensive for cheap works with cheap materials.
The pen is on the Takumi size and fills via cartridge convertor and features a size 18kt gold nib.
MSRP on this pen is $4,200
