Pontifex Maximus Arisumi MITAMURA, Artist Pen 2025 * Philosophical Instruments

For the first series of artist pens, carte blanche was given to six of the most highly regarded lacquer artists in Japan. Each of these fountain pens is a unique (1/1) work of art and represents the highest level of contemporary urushi art.

Arisumi Mitamura (b. 1949) descends from a long line of Edo-based Maki-e artists, hailing back to the esteemed master Jitoku Akatsuka (1871-1936), who is perceived as one of the most important innovators of lacquer art in the 20th century. Since collecting lacquer from his family's own lacquer trees aged seven and urged by his grandfather and father to pursue his own artistic language, Arisumi continues this tradition with a focus on creativity rather than sheer skill, and was awarded Japan's highest title for artistic achievement in the form of the Japan Art Academy Award.

Read more about: Mitamura Family

 On his fountain pen "Sanmai no Umo" (Three Down Feathers) Arisumi Mitamura makes use of copious amounts of densely sprinkled gold powder, stacked in several layers to form a Kinji-ground that was a hallmark technique of the Jitoku-school. These are contrasted against an elegant blue kawarinuri background, from which lightly floating feathers emerge, using a mixture of differently shaped and sized gold particles that give them their lively sparkle. At the rear end of the pen, we see that the gold ground is dispersed in several craters or blotches, which is Arisumi's signature technique named tenmoku-nuri in reference to ancient tea bowls with similar speckled patterns. 

The Pontifex Maximus is the first fountain pen model. In Latin, Pontifex means "bridge-builder". Made in Belgium from Japanese ebonite and featuring a Japanese eyedropper filling system, this oversized fountain pen is a well-balanced writing instrument and offers a generous canvas for urushi and maki-e artwork.