Ikoma Silver Eight-Sided Fountain Pen c. late 1930s

by Jim Mamoulides, August 18, 2023

Ikoma silver eight-sided fountain pen c. late 1930s

A Jeweler’s Gem

This silver eight-sided Japanese lever-fill pen was made by Ikoma, a famous jeweler, watch, and clock seller in Osaka, Japan. The clip is stamped Ikoma-sei, “Made By Ikoma,” in Japanese kanji characters. It’s about 131mm long and has a long tined flexible steel Falcon type nib stamped WARRANTED over HARDEST over IRIDIUM over POINTED. It’s possibly from the late 1930s because gold nibs were not used in Japan after about 1937 due to government wartime restrictions on gold for commercial purposes. The cap and barrel are each made as a silver outer cover attached to a hard rubber core, leaving a wide hard rubber lip at the base of the cap and where the section meets the barrel. SILVER is stamped near the cap lip on the front face. I don’t know what the engraving on the back of the cap symbolizes, it could be a personalization.

Considering how G. Ikoma Ltd. presented watches and Ikoma-made silver crafted items in their own gift cases, I believe it’s possible the pen would have been sold in an Ikoma branded yellow satin lined clamshell case. Ikoma presentation cases have printing on the satin inside the top cover with a stylized design that includes the Ikoma company logo next to G. IKOMA LTD over OSAKA.

G. Ikoma Ltd.

Ikoma silver eight-sided fountain pen c. late 1930s

According to the website “Smoking Samurai,” that specializes in Japanese cigarette case collecting, G. Ikoma Ltd. was established in 1923 and moved into the historic Ikoma Building in 1930. Gonkichi Ikoma was one of the two original founders of the company. “In 1872 the shop (named Diagondo) manufactured and sold various accessories and souvenirs such as smoke pipes, hairpins, obidome (ornamental trims worn by Japanese women with their kimono attire), silverware, and crafts. In 1873 Daigondo began to import and sell watches. In 1882 six workers were employed by the shop.” Gonshichi Ikoma died in 1922 and his grandson Rinnosuke became manager of the company.

The Historic Ikoma Building

The five story Ikoma Building, also known as the Ikoma Watch Store, at Sakaisuji, designed by Heizo So, was finished being built in 1930 and still stands today as an Osaka Registered Tangible Cultural Property. It’s on the southwest corner of the intersection of Hiranomachi-Dori Street and Sakaisuji-Street. According to Osaka Heritage, “Sakaisuji was the former main street of Osaka City.”

Undated early photograph of the Ikoma Building
After recent restoration, the clock faces no longer have numbers

The side facing the corner has a flat face, rather than being a corner, giving the building three faces, as viewed from the opposite street corner, with a clock tower at the far left. Each of the three faces has two windows on each floor, with tall picture windows on the bottom, arched windows on the second, and two rectangular pairs of windows on the third through fifth. The clock tower has two clock faces, one facing the street it is on, and the other facing the opposite corner street. The clock face that faces the street is the top part of a building length design of clock and pendulum, with the middle being the rod, a series of narrow bay windows in a three story frame and ending below in a round window at the second floor, as the pendulum weight.

Ikoma silver eight-sided fountain pen c. late 1930s

The G. Ikoma company, now primarily a watch and clock retailer, is still at that location. The rest of the building contains concierge office space. The address is 2-2-12 Hiranomachi, Chuo-Ku, Osaka, Japan. I could not find out if Ikoma financed the building, but the fact that the company was an original tenant, that the building is known as the Ikoma Building, and that Ikoma specialized in watches and clocks in a building with a huge clock tower above the roofline, serving as a giant advertisement, would indicate that Ikoma was the intended tenant, at minimum.

Ikoma silver eight-sided fountain pen c. late 1930s

A Mysterious and Classic Beauty

I don’t know if this was a production or custom pen, so I’m not going to include the usual identification guide and features section. As this pen was intended for photos for a print article on Japanese pens, I was not able to test write with it, so there also will be no Performance section. I can say that the fit and finish is excellent, as would be expected from something jeweler made. It’s not clear if Ikoma made the metal parts and sent them to a nearby pen maker to finish the pen or made it all in house. I would think it unlikely Ikoma made the nib or lever parts as they would be easy and less expensive to source from local pen maker shops.

Ikoma silver eight-sided fountain pen c. late 1930s

Is the pen rare or valuable? Rare? Very likely. I’ve only seen two, one in person and one on a Japanese auction site, which sold on May 16, 2021 for 34,000 yen, or about $233.62 in current dollars as of this writing. I would see this as a treasured item to own if you like sterling silver and Japanese pens. A fine addition to any pen collection.

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References

Ikoma Buidling Website

Ikoma Building Facebook page

Japanese Ikoma sterling silver octahedron pen

Osaka Heritage Navigation: Ikoma Watch Store (Ikoma Building) page

Similar Ikoma pen sold on aucfree

Smoking Samurai: G. Ikoma [生駒時計店] (1870 ~ today)