Tasia Palisades: 12 Japanese Urushi and Maki-e Fountain Pens Worth a Close Look

Introduction

Palisades is a sister brand of Tasia with a clear goal: Japanese-made urushi and maki-e fountain pens at a more attainable price than the genre usually demands. Attainable is relative here, with Palisades models starting just under $900 and the two Empress editions running well past $4,000. Across twelve pens on loan, the range covers a wide spread of artistic styles, from minimalist faceted lacquer to elaborate shell, eggshell, and gold work.

This guide walks through each model from least to most expensive, notes what stands out and what does not, and ends with practical buying advice for anyone considering one.

What the Palisades Line Has in Common

Nearly every Palisades pen shares the same foundation. The bodies are made from ebonite and finished using urushi lacquer, maki-e techniques, or both. The design language is a twisting faceted profile, though a couple of models break from that pattern. The nibs are two-tone 18 karat gold units made by Sailor, roughly the size of a number six nib, stamped with the Palisades P logo, and available in extra fine, fine, medium, broad, Zoom, and music nib options.

The pens are cartridge-converter models that use Sailor converters and cartridges. Because the barrels have metal housing, eyedropper conversion is not recommended. Dimensions are mostly shared across the line, with a couple of models slightly longer and thicker, including a noticeably larger section. One caveat worth knowing: some early models carry the Palisades name engraved on the cap, and the engraving quality is not the strongest, so most later models skip it.

Sierra Lime

The Sierra Lime is the least expensive of the group and one of the most appealing designs in the lineup. An underlying green urushi accentuates the twisting faceted design, giving the pen a sculptural look that changes as it turns in the hand. It is one of only two models with the company name engraved on the cap, which feels unnecessary here since the engraving is not high quality and the lacquer would look better untouched.

Wajima Cloth Red

Wajima is a city in Japan with a deep lacquer tradition, and this pen uses urushi application to depict a rectangular red cloth wrapped around the barrel. The concept is simple but distinctive, and it reads clearly from a distance while holding up to close inspection.

CL Coastal Glitter

On the CL Coastal Glitter, thin strips of mother-of-pearl accent each facet of the barrel. The strips are not single continuous pieces; they are broken into segments about an inch long, but the transitions are so tight that the effect reads as one long inlay. That level of seam control speaks to careful craftsmanship.

New Zealand Shell Green

The New Zealand Shell Green is the one model where the twisting facet treatment is dropped, with each facet finished as a solid piece instead. The shell work on the cap is the highlight, showing pleasing natural color variation. The green body itself is somewhat understated, which will suit some tastes and leave others cold.

Snowy Wave

The Snowy Wave combines thin mother-of-pearl strips with quail eggshell inlay, and it is the second pen in the group to carry the engraved company name, this time cut directly into the eggshell and filled with black lacquer. From a distance it looks fine, but up close the engraving quality is again underwhelming and the eggshell would arguably be better left unmarked.

What makes this pen charming is the way broken pieces of a single eggshell are placed next to each other, a reminder that the work is deliberate and done by hand over many hours.

Takusan Kingyo

Takusan means “a lot” and kingyo means goldfish, and this pen earns its name. Goldfish swim across the barrel in gold, with one fish on the cap rendered in a different color as a nice artistic accent. The section is finished in black lacquer. For anyone drawn to fish motifs, this is an easy pick.

Koi Pond

The Koi Pond layers koi, lily pads, and smaller circular details that could be plants or air bubbles into a cohesive scene. It is a narrative design that rewards longer looks, and it fits naturally in the lineup between the simpler designs and the most elaborate pieces.

Hokusai Akafuji

Hokusai was a famous Japanese artist of the 17th and 18th centuries, and akafuji translates to Mount Fuji in red. This pen pairs that red Fuji motif with a blend of black, red, green, and blue, over a black section. It is a bold color combination within a design tradition that is often more restrained.

Princess Kaguya

Princess Kaguya translates to “shining princess,” and the art is based on a 10th-century Japanese fairy tale with a moral: wealth and status do not bring happiness if you are surrounded by people you do not love. The princess with her flowing black hair is depicted on the barrel, and in the story she grows less happy as she climbs higher in social rank. The lacquer treatment carries into the section on this model, which looks great.

Hokusai Great Wave

The Great Wave is arguably the standout of the Palisades line. It depicts Hokusai’s most famous work, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, with the wave’s edges reaching like fingers toward a longboat and Mount Fuji sitting in the distance. A variation on the theme appears on the lower portion without Fuji, so the design never feels repetitive.

Empress Shangri-La Tranquility

Stepping outside the Palisades line, the Empress Shangri-La Tranquility is a limited edition of 20 pens and a successor to the earlier Whispering Pond, which sold out quickly. This is a large ebonite pen similar in size to a Sailor King of Pen. The base is a green Midori urushi with lotus flowers at various stages of bloom, quail eggshell (rankaku) inside the flowers, mother-of-pearl flowing and cascading water, and dragonflies with mother-of-pearl wings near the top. The artist’s signature and pen number appear at the bottom; this example is a 0 of 0, the artist’s proof. The lacquer application continues onto the section, which is slightly textured rather than perfectly smooth, and the branded King of Pen nib from Sailor is outstanding. It retails for $5,395.

Empress Golden Nectar

The Empress Golden Nectar is also a limited edition of 20 and updates the earlier sold-out Honeybee. Orange blossoms sit on a shiro-tamamushi background depicting raw honey. Two techniques appear on the flower petals: rankaku (quail eggshell) and hari-kiji, a stippling technique where individual dots are applied by hand rather than painted. The half-and-half clip, half mother-of-pearl and half stippled gold, is a standout detail, as are the stippled cap and barrel finials and a section where the mother-of-pearl fades out over beautifully shaded urushi. It uses the same branded King of Pen nib and retails for $4,895.

Nibs and Writing Experience

The standard Palisades nibs are two-tone 18 karat gold Sailor units available in extra fine, fine, medium, broad, Zoom, and music sizes. Sailor’s Zoom nib changes line width depending on the angle at which it meets the paper, which makes it genuinely fun to use. The Empress pens carry Tasia’s branded King of Pen nib, a large and impressive writer that handled hundreds of thank-you notes without complaint.

The music nib deserves a note of its own: unlike some music nibs with two tines, Sailor’s has one, producing thinner lines on horizontal strokes and thicker lines vertically, with pleasant line variation even at low pressure. Paired with a shading ink, the writing samples from a medium, a fine, and a music nib showed the range these nibs cover nicely.

Buying Advice

With prices from just under $900 to over $5,000, the smart approach is to pick the design that genuinely resonates, because the craftsmanship is consistent across the line. For a first Palisades pen, the Sierra Lime offers the best entry point and a design that flatters the faceted format. The Hokusai Great Wave is the strongest artistic statement of the ten, and a fine nib on it makes for a very complete package. If budget stretches further and a large pen appeals, the Empress limited editions justify their prices with large King of Pen nibs, denser lacquer work, and editions of only 20 units each.

Conclusion

The Palisades line succeeds at its stated goal of making Japanese urushi and maki-e pens more accessible, while the two Empress editions show what the brand can do at the top end. Not every design will match every taste, and the occasional low-quality engraving is the one recurring complaint, but the range is varied enough that most collectors will find at least one or two pens they genuinely want to own.