Danitrio Two Hummingbirds Maki-e Shakaku: A Hand-Painted Fountain Pen Worth a Close Look

Introduction

Some fountain pens exist in a different category entirely. The Danitrio Two Hummingbirds Maki-e Shakaku is one of them. It arrived in a softwood presentation box with a Danitrio branded kimono sleeve and polishing cloth, and from the first unboxing it is clear this is a pen built as functional art rather than a daily workhorse. At $3,000 it sits firmly in luxury territory, so the fair question is what that money actually buys.

Who This Pen Is For

This is not a pen for someone shopping for their first fountain pen. The Two Hummingbirds makes sense for collectors who appreciate hand-applied urushi work, who want a piece tied to a specific artist rather than anonymous production, and who plan to use or display the pen as part of a curated collection. If you have ever wondered what justifies an elevated price in this market, this pen illustrates it well: decades of artisan skill applied by hand to a base model that is already a well-designed writer.

What Makes This Pen Special

The official name is the Danitrio Two Hummingbirds Maki-e on Shakaku. Shakaku, the name of the base model, translates roughly as first discovery, and it is a medium-sized octagonal pen roughly comparable in size to a Pilot Vanishing Point. Underneath the artwork is an ebonite base covered in a deep glossy black urushi lacquer, with flat cap and barrel ends and a minimal rounded step between the two.

The artwork shows two hummingbirds flying among nectar-filled hibiscus flowers. In Japanese culture hummingbirds symbolize dreams and aspirations, emerging beauty and grace, and are associated with love and romance. The combination of colorful raden shell inlay and golden maki-e on the birds is the standout detail, and the large hibiscus flower carries genuinely impressive rendering. A signature at the bottom identifies the artist.

That signature matters. This pen was hand painted by Wakao Toshiko, whose artist name is Usay, and her husband is also an artisan for Danitrio. Her favorite themes are flowers, animals, and geometric designs. Knowing exactly whose hands produced the artwork is part of what separates this pen from mass production, and the detail rewards close inspection.

The artwork’s subject is also a fun piece of trivia: hummingbirds exist only in the Americas today. Fossils have been found in Germany, Poland, and France, but the prevailing theory is that competition in the nectar-eating bird world pushed them out of the old world, and they thrived in the Americas where that competition was thinner.

Build and Handling

As you would expect from an ebonite pen, the Two Hummingbirds is fairly light in the hand. The section is a highlight: for a medium-sized pen, it is surprisingly generous in width, flaring slightly at the start and stepping up gently toward the barrel, and it fits the hand comfortably. The cap twists off with just over three rotations, which sounds like a lot but never felt excessive in practice.

The pen is long enough to use unposted, which is the only option. The cap is not designed to post, and honestly you would not want to post it over urushi and maki-e art anyway. The barrel is a one-piece construction, and with a little silicone grease, eyedroppering this pen would be a possibility.

Nib and Writing Performance

The pen carries a two-tone number six 18 karat gold nib with the iconic Danitrio fireball stamping, an image of the Kaki-mon, a flame-shaped halo associated with the god of fire and commonly painted on the back of Japanese Buddhist statues. Nib options include fine, medium, broad, and a 1.1 stub. The number six nib uses a plastic feed, and the pen accepts standard international cartridges, with a converter included.

In the medium nib, the writing experience is very generous. The medium runs wide, almost broad, with noticeable line variation and an extremely generous, wet ink flow. Reverse writing lays down a nice extra fine line, and during fast writing the feed kept up without issue thanks to that abundant flow.

Ink choice rewards experimentation here. A blue-green ink with a red sheen looked striking through the wet medium nib, and the same ink rendered differently in comparison samples. Other inks, from a deep petrol tone to a more straightforward blue and a softer green with less sheen, all behaved well with the generous flow.

Things to Consider Before Buying

At $3,000, value here is extremely subjective. You are buying more than a pen: you are buying a unique piece of craftsmanship and functional art created by a talented artisan with decades of experience, and a significant price attaches to that. Consider whether a hand-painted urushi piece fits how you actually use pens.

The pen is available through the Arushi Pens website, and Danitrio’s own site lists many other maki-e offerings if this design is not quite the right fit. Collectors should also note that Danitrio is a genuinely multinational operation: founded in 1974 in California by the husband and wife team of Bernard and Danny Lynn, named after Danny, with Taiwanese founders and all urushi and maki-e work completed in Japan by skilled artisans.

Buying Advice

If you are in the market for a high-end maki-e pen, handle the practical points first: confirm you are comfortable with a medium-sized, unposted-only, cartridge converter pen that you would want to keep away from harsh handling given the lacquer artwork. Then decide whether the design speaks to you, because with hand-painted urushi, emotional connection is a legitimate part of the purchase. For those drawn to birds, flowers, and detailed raden and maki-e work, the Two Hummingbirds is a compelling example of the category.

Conclusion

The Danitrio Two Hummingbirds Maki-e Shakaku combines spectacular maki-e and raden work with a comfortable octagonal body, a generous and wet 18k gold nib, and the rare appeal of a named artist’s signature. It is a luxury pen with a luxury price, but what it delivers for that price is real: hand-crafted art you can write with.