Inkcredible Colours

Date of visit: 7 November 2024

Itoya was started in 1904 by Katsutaro Ito to sell Japanese, Chinese and Western stationery. The first Itoya store opened in Ginza, before moving to it’s current building (still in Ginza) in 2015. G.Itoya (Google Maps link) had a red paperclip above the shop sign while the smaller K.Itoya (Google Maps link) nearby had a fountain pen.

The first time I visited G.Itoya was in 2023. I was so tired out from going to all the floors that I didn’t have the energy to visit the smaller K.Itoya nearby. So I resolved that next time, I would conserve energy by only visiting the floors I was interested in.

But guess what? I forgot my own advice when I visited G.Itoya in 2024 and again ended up too tired to visit K.Itoya or even the cafe on the top floor.

There were escalators going up until the 8th floor and this was the fastest way to visit the different floors. As the escalators were only for going up, to get back down, you could take the lift or stairs. There was one small lift, so there was always a queue of people waiting and it could take a while for the lift to arrive. I found that it was faster to take the stairs. If you are planning to visit all the floors, I felt it is better to start at the 8th floor and then slowly make your way down.

This are the floors I had visited on this trip.

1. 1st Floor: Ground
2. 2nd Floor: Share
3. 3rd Floor: Write
4. 4th Floor: Organize
5. 5th Floor: Work
6. 6th Floor: Home
7. 7th Floor: Color
8. 8th Floor: Craft

1st Floor: Ground

On the 1st floor, there was a small counter where you could buy drinks and small confectionaries. There was no sitting available.

As I went at the end of the year, there were a lot of Christmas cards on display.

There was also a special display for a Caran d’Ache pen that had just launched. I believed it was the cosmic blue colourway. Blue was my colour but I had already spent enough at the Tokyo International Pen Show so I was reluctant to buy more pens. Besides, I preferred gel pens over ballpoint pens.

2nd Floor: Share

The 2nd floor stocked a variety of items.

There were more greeting cards and stuff for writing Japanese letters.

There was a variety of wax and stamps for making wax seals.

I was also surprised to find a variety of fountain pen inks and some cheap entry-level fountain pens on this floor. I would have thought they belonged to the next floor which was for fountain pens but it seemed that half (if not most) of the inks are on this floor. Perhaps they ran out of space upstairs?

3rd Floor: Write

This was the floor for fountain pens. There was a variety of brands, both Japanese and foreign.

This was the immediate view when I got off the escalator. The first thing that greeted customers on this floor were Lamy pens.

There were a lot of beautiful fountain pens on display. I liked that the staff generally left customers alone and would step in only when you needed their assistance.

When I visited, there was a testing station for Pilot Custom 823 with various nib sizes. They were lovely to write with but out of my budget. I could only internally lament at my lack of self-control during the Tokyo International Pen Show. Perhaps the trick is to visit G.Itoya before I spend all my money at the pen show?

There were also some inks on display. At a glance, they seemed to be from different brands compared to those that could be found on the 2nd floor.

4th Floor: Organize

On the 4th floor, there was a variety of planners and diaries as well as stationery that you could use with them. Every time I visited a Japanese stationery store, I would take a look at the Plotter binders on display. Each time, I would run my finger along the edge of the external metal bar and find it too sharp for my liking.

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