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Sailor

Sailor Ink Studio No. 540



Since 2005, Sailor has been actively holding Ink Studio in-shop ink blending events all throughout Japan. These sought after events have always been a success with customers lining up to have custom ink colors blended by their famed Sailor ink blender Osamu Ishimaru. 

At the event, Sailor ink blender Osamu Ishimaru wears a barman's uniform and uses a cocktail shaker to customize ink in front of customers. The design of the bottle is inspired by the uniform; and the color is a deep and bright ocean blue that represents the hope and the future started by Osamu Ishimaru. 

The Ink Studio event has created over 20,000 customized ink and in 2018, Sailor picked the 100 most liked colors and turned them into a standard ink series.


About Sailor:

Sailor was founded in 1911. The founder Kyugoro Sakata was given a fountain pen by a friend returning from the UK after studying at the Royal Navy. He was inspired and determined to start making fountain pens in Japan. Sailor became the first fountain pen company in Japan, and earned many more firsts in Japan -- first ballpoint pen in 1948, first ink cartridge in 1954 and first brush pen in 1972, etc.

In the 1970's, Sailor made a popular beginner fountain pen, "Candy," that sold more than 15 million within a few years. However, the number of the fountain pen users were declining as ballpoint pens became more mainstream.

In 1981, Sailor decided to go in the opposite direction from their "Candy" pen and began focusing on producing a higher standard series, which is the 1911 series we see today. Their focus on making a higher standard provides a great foundation for their later series of pens. Today, Sailor makes one of the most diverse lines of nibs, some of which are designed for specific writing purposes such as writing musical notes to one that is best for character writing.