Review of the Namiki Emperor Kisshomon Birds In Flight fountain pen (4K)

This Namiki Pilot Emperor Kisshomon Maki-e and Raden fountain pen was made by Hyakusen Murata in the early 19902. It is a Japanese ebonite fountain pen and shows three stylised flying birds accompanied by a collection of happiness/good luck imagery such as pine, bamboo, cherry blossom and more - several of these items also appear in the Namiki Emperor Treasure. The pen uses the nashiji style of granular gold background which Murata also applied to some other pens such as the Carp on Waterfall and the Autumn Flowers Hagi. This pen was not made for commercial availability but instead was given to Namiki executives, and consequently is extremely rare and usually commands a very high asking price for this reason (whilst also being an impressive piece of art). The pen being from the early 1990s features Pilot branding on the clip and nib, more recent pens transitioned to Namiki branding. This urushi and maki-e pen was loaned to me for the review (so no writing with it), but to see how these pens write, please take a look at the Namiki Emperor writing sample video where I write with 3 pens:    • Namiki Emperor fountain pen writing sample...  ​​ Enjoy!