Enso Urushi Pocket Pens: The Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen and the Kuro Tamenuri Pre-Order

Introduction

Over the last few years Enso has built a reputation for unusual, well-priced fountain pens, and the brand has now moved into urushi lacquer finishes at prices that undercut much of the traditional urushi market. Two models illustrate this well: the Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen, a compact lacquered pocket pen with a 14k gold nib that retailed for $395 and sold out on the Enso website within a couple of hours of launch, and the Puma Kuro Tamenuri, a slightly larger urushi pen at $495 that is currently taking pre-orders.

This article walks through what makes the Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen interesting, how it performs, and who the Kuro Tamenuri pre-order might suit.

The Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen at a Glance

The Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen is exactly what the name suggests: a small pocket pen with an ebonite base covered in black urushi lacquer. In photographs it simply looks like a tidy black pen, but that is part of the charm of black urushi. The appeal is less about a flashy first impression and more about the owner knowing what went into the pen’s creation.

The cap twists off with a single rotation, revealing a 14k gold number 6 nib with a clean, simple imprint and a plastic feed. The section starts with a small flare before angling into narrow cap threads and a medium step up to the barrel. The top of the pen is rounded and angles up slightly before running straight along most of its length, the cap-to-barrel transition is smooth, and the barrel end is rounded with exposed posting threads that the black lacquer hides remarkably well.

For quick notes the pen is just long enough unposted, but for standard writing you will want to post the cap, which takes only about half a rotation. When posted, it reaches roughly the size of a standard pen, and it is actually larger than the standard Puma when posted, which is a neat trick for a pocket model.

Why Urushi Feels Different

A typical urushi pen carries multiple layers, often three: a base layer, a middle layer, and an outer oil-based urushi mix for protection. With the Royal Urushi technique, the first two layers are the same, but the outer layer uses an oil-free urushi lacquer that is burnished with a special charcoal and fine abrasive to produce a distinctive glossy luster.

In the hand, urushi lacquer has a particular softness and warmth that most lacquered pens do not replicate. Urushi itself is a genuinely scarce material: each tree needs 10 to 15 years of growth before harvest, and a single tree yields only about 200 grams, enough to paint roughly 10 small rice bowls. After harvest the trees are cut down and a new forest is planted, a cycle Japan has sustained for thousands of years. At $395 with a 14k gold nib, the Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen was a reasonable price for genuine urushi work, which helps explain why it vanished from the Enso site so quickly.

Filling Options and the New Mini Converter

Despite the short barrel, the pen is flexible on ink supply. It accepts standard international short cartridges and can be eyedroppered, with an o-ring on the section housing making eyedropper conversion a bit safer.

The most elegant solution, though, is a newly released mini converter designed for very short barrels. It folds out to draw ink and folds back in, delivering the same capacity as a standard converter in roughly half the length. For anyone with cartridge-only or short-barreled pens, picking up a couple of these is strongly recommended.

Writing Performance

The review nib is a fine 14k gold nib, and it sits on the finer side of fine. Ink flow leans toward the lighter side, and there is a modest amount of line variation available. Reverse writing is acceptable without being spectacular, and at faster writing speeds the nib delivers decent feedback.

With a warm rust-orange ink, the fine line width keeps the color crisp, though writers who prefer slightly thicker lines may want to keep their preferences in mind. For a fine nib, it performs very nicely overall, and paired with the compact body it makes a genuinely pleasant daily writer once posted.

Should You Consider the Kuro Tamenuri Instead?

If you missed the Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen, availability is uncertain, so joining Enso’s mailing list is the best way to catch a restock. In the meantime, the Puma Kuro Tamenuri is open for pre-order. It is a very nice urushi lacquer pen with a nib slightly larger than the pocket model’s, and at $495 for a urushi pen with a 14k gold nib, the price is reasonable for what you get. These have sold out quickly in the past, so anyone interested should check the Enso website for pre-order availability rather than waiting.

Conclusion

Enso continues to deliver quality items at reasonable prices, and its urushi line is a convincing example. The Royal Urushi Puma Pocket Pen is an interesting, well-executed pocket pen with real urushi warmth and a quick-to-post design, while the Kuro Tamenuri offers a larger lacquered alternative for those on pre-order. If genuine urushi at this price level appeals to you, either model is well worth checking out.