PILOT produced the Fumi Raku in both ballpoint and mechanical pencil formats. But since it appears the pencil was produced in less volume and likely fewer colorways, I’m posting about it here under the Pen Discussion.
I’ve been trying to get a clearer picture of the PILOT Fumi Raku series, but unfortunately there’s not a lot of information available. Generally speaking, it appears it was released in 2014 and then discontinued in 2017… and I don’t know if all colorways were released at the same time or if they were produced at different times. I also don’t know if the wooden series “Touki” oakwood (white pottery ceramic) and “Nanbutetsu” briarwood (black iron) were in that time frame or after. Apparently PILOT produced them in both ballpoint and mechanical pencil formats, with the pen being more popular and thus higher production volume.
From what I’ve gathered thus far, the standard colorways were: pearl white, pearl pink, pearl red, Lapis Lazuli (Ruri), pearl violet, vermilion (Shuka), matcha green, and pearl black. The two wooden exclusives are Nambu iron briarwood (Nanbutetsu), Pottery white ceramic oakwood (Touki).
The operation is a twist action to deploy the pen refill or advance lead. And apparently the mechanical pencil also features a shaker mechanism for lead advancement.
What I find a bit intriguing is the middle section… which has beveled steel connectors. And it looks like it would be a body-knock type because of it… but sadly no, it doesn’t bend!
Here’s a nice photo I found off of Instagram, showing two colorways. The pinkish cherry-blossom one is called “Fuji”, and the other bluish one is called “Ruri” which I think is the lapis lazuli.
Yes, the mechanical pencil is a joy to use. Recommended!
I remember these were in some modern catalogs I found online, maybe they’re already deleted. Some things I remember:
this model was marketed mostly to women, as a counterpart to the cut ring series being the men executive lineup
the catalog said 5000 units manufactured per year for the MP, since it was discontinued so quickly (only in 3 years) i suspect that those initial units didn’t even sell, so there’s a chance there’s only 5000 of each pencil out there
for the matte ballpoint colorways, there’s also a light grey one I think
for the pencil colorways there’s three: pink, pearl white and black.
the ballpoints were sold for longer than the mechanical pencils. Actually I bought some of my wooden fumi raku in Amazon not so long ago, maybe 3y ago?
My own research with the Wayback machine shows the Pilot site listing the Fumi Raku from around 2006. The series seems to be ‘pen-first’ as the high-end Touki and Nabutetsu models with wood grips did not have accompanying pencil models. The series began to be phased out in 2017 as models gradually disappeared from the catalog. Current prices for the pencil have blown up into the 20K JPY region. This could be the most refined shaker Pilot ever made! The twist mechanism feels dampened, and you can lock out the shaker too.
A lot depends on how accurate and error-free the Wayback Machine is…
I think those dates are correct. Fumi raku ballpoints were a rather long seller, it’s just the mechanical pencil that had such an ephemeral sales period.
Unsure if I ever uploaded this picture here! I love when many different designs kind of blend together, and I feel like the fumi raku series blends in this way masterfully
