Kita-Boshi Pencil

Kita-Boshi Pencil Co., Ltd. was founded in 1951 in Yotsugi, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo. Its ancestors served as "yuhitsu" (scribes) handling the official documents of the Tokugawa shogunate, and later, as tonden-hei (military settlers), ran a lumber business in Hokkaido. The flow of a family trade deeply involved with "writing" and "wood" merged and led to pencil-making.

Since its founding, Kita-Boshi Pencil has delivered pencils to many schools and children as a writing-tool maker centered on school pencils. As the times changed, it expanded its lineup with pencils for drafting and design, colored pencils and wooden mechanical pencils, continuing product development that meets users' needs.

The "Otona no Enpitsu," born on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, was created as a writing tool for adults, with a pencil-like wooden barrel carrying a 2mm lead. Its warm wooden barrel and sharp writing feel won support, and selected for the Japan Stationery Award, it grew into a series loved by many stationery fans.

Meanwhile, behind pencil-making, a large amount of sawdust is produced. Facing that reality, the eco products — the wood clay "Mokunensan" and the wood-painting paint "Wood Paint" — were born from the wish to "turn sawdust into treasure." Its "circular pencil-industry system," which re-commercializes waste, has won various awards as an environmentally conscious effort and has become a strength unique to Kita-Boshi Pencil.

Today it also focuses on activities to convey to children the processes and history of how a pencil is made, through its factory-tour facility "Tokyo Pencil Lab." As a place of learning equipped with a pencil museum and a craft-experience corner, it plays the role of connecting "pencil culture" — a local industry of Tokyo — to the next generation.

Principled making, continuing from Edo-era scribes

The founding family's roots lie in a "yuhitsu" (scribe) who served the Tokugawa shogunate and a lumber merchant. Pencil-making — born from the crossing of the work of writing and the work of wood — has been handed down across five generations to the present. With the words "a pencil whittles away itself to be of use to people" in mind, it has continued principled, sincere making.

A product range that broadens the joy of writing, from school pencils to "Otona no Enpitsu"

It makes a wide range of writing tools — school pencils, colored pencils, pencils for drafting and design, and wooden mechanical pencils. The "Otona no Enpitsu," born for its 60th anniversary, is a long-seller whose writing feel and texture as a wooden mechanical pencil won praise, and it was selected for the Japan Stationery Award.

A circular pencil-industry system that turns sawdust into treasure

It re-commercializes the roughly 40% of sawdust produced in pencil manufacturing into "the wood clay Mokunensan," "the wood-painting paint Wood Paint," "fire starters" and more. This circular effort to turn waste into resources has been selected for the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry's management award and others, and is highly regarded as environmentally conscious making.

Learn the secrets of pencils at Tokyo Pencil Lab

At the factory-tour facility "Tokyo Pencil Lab," you can learn hands-on about the processes, history and materials behind how a pencil is made. Through craft experiences using the sawdust clay "Mokunensan" and the pencil-museum exhibits, it offers a place where children and adults alike can rediscover the appeal of pencils.