The Pilot / Namiki Yukari Zodiac series is one of the most sustained decorative enterprises in modern Japanese pen making: a complete set of twelve pens, one for each sign of the lunar calendar, produced by Pilot's Kokkokai atelier in two successive editions spanning more than three decades.

Each pen in the series is built on a specific design principle: the animal of each sign is paired with a plant whose name or ecology connects it to that animal in a way that rewards careful attention.

For the inoshishi (猪), the wild boar, the companion plant is the shishiudo (シシウド, Angelica pubescens). The Japanese name of the angelica contains the character for boar: shishi (猪) means boar, udo (独活) means angelica. The plant grows in the damp mountain forest understory that the boar inhabits and roots through in search of rhizomes and tubers. The pairing is simultaneously linguistic, ecological and botanical.

It requires knowledge to perceive, and rewards that knowledge when it is found.

The decoration is togidashi maki-e, gold powder applied to fresh urushi, sealed under additional lacquer layers, then polished until the motif surfaces flush with the surrounding lacquer.

The body carries the boar; the cap carries the angelica.

The drawings were executed by Masaru Hayashi (林勝), a master of the Kokkokai atelier.

This is the second edition of the series. It uses a brass body with urushi lacquer and a cartridge-converter filling system.

Condition:

New old stock, never inked, complete with original paulownia box, artist signature card with Kokkokai seal, and CON-70N converter.

18-karat pilot gold nib, Medium.

This is the japanese version (pilot)