What a weekend. As if Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) wasn’t enough, pen club Wagner also had their autumn meet-up and mini pen show. It was heaven for pen people. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 東京インターナショナルペンショー (@tokyopenshow) on Oct 5, 2019 at 3:50pm PDT This was the second year TIPS was held, and it was both bigger and more international than last year.

Bungujoshi-haku is Japan’s largest stationery expo. With over 35 000 attendees, it is perhaps also the world’s busiest. Bungujoshi is not just about pens though, but also about notebooks, washi tape, and all kinds of stationery. This year, the organization behind this mega expo decided to do a smaller spinoff show focused on inks, riding on the current ink trend in Japan. They named it Inku-numa (lit. ink swamp), which is also what ink obsession is called here.

Gary is a fountain pen enthusiast from southern Japan with a knack for chemistry. A few years ago, he started experimenting with iron gall inks. This eventually led to a collaboration with Platinum, resulting in the Classic Ink series. He has also made inks for Pen Saloon and Wagner. A few months ago, Gary published a few observations and lessons using iron gall inks in fountain pens, on his Japanese blog.