Posted Monday, May 15, 2006; 20:00 HKT
The commercial viability of a store selling mostly fountain pens would be questionable anywhere else in the world except Japan. But being located in a country of obsessive connoisseurship (probe the average Japanese and you'll uncover an inexplicable command of, say, the finest highland malts or vintage Dunhill pipes), the future of the Shosaikan boutique is assured. Customers who know their piston fillers from their 1952 Sheaffer Snorkels make pilgrimages to this Tokyo store in search of the finest collectable writing instruments. They are rarely disappointed, choosing among such exotica as a 21-karat-gold and ebonite Sailor brand pen, with a dragon motif layered on in exquisite lacquer, or a $1,300 Delta, incorporating marble matured for a decade in an Italian workshop. The staff, too, are cognoscenti—able to advise on the right pen based on the angle of a buyer's grip, or the pressure applied to a sheet of paper. Masatoshi Akamori, Shosaikan's owner, opened the store in 2001 after spending five years searching for an alternative to his hectic career as the manager of a duty-free shop. "I don't preach to my customers," he says of his belief that everyone can find some time in the day to turn away from the keyboard and write a letter instead of sending an e-mail. "However, I always tell them that a love letter, at least, should be written on paper." You might smirk at such Luddite whimsy. But if you could see the sums that people are willing to part with for a 1971 Parker 61, or a 1931 Pelikan #100, you'd also concede that Akamori is having the last laugh.

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