Montegrappa Bijo-To-Yaju Rollerball

Montegrappa’s Bijo-To-Yaju is a luxury, handcrafted, limited-edition writing collection designed and manufactured in collaboration with designer Tomita Kazuhiko. The Bijo-To-Yaju is one of the most ambitious and avant-garde releases in the recent history of luxury writing. It fuses elements of Japanese woodblock printing, Kabuki and Kintsugi to interpret the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast through Japanese cultural equivalents. Interpretations of the merchant’s ship, the castle, the fateful rose and the loving couple wrap the length of its acrylic body. Gold enamel relief separates each chapter, emulating Japanese Kintsugi (“golden repair”) technique.

The Bijo-To-Yaju pen bends many of the accepted conventions of pen design with its clipless cap, generous heft and upright display. Centrepiece elements are provided by the sculpted head and rump of the Shishi – an Eastern analogy for the Beast depicted in Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film, La Belle et la Bête. Crafted in vermeil using lost wax casting, each is an example of a jewellery-making technique featured on celebrated Montegrappa editions including Dragon (1995) and Kitcho (2021).

The Montegrappa Bijo-To-Yaju is fully handcrafted, with all body components being cast and turned in Montegrappa’s artisanal manufacture. The golden key featured in Cocteau’s film is affixed to the top of the barrel and corresponds to a lock incorporated into the cap band. Both elements are cast in vermeil and offer a veiled comment on forbidden love.

The Bijo-To-Yaju is available in a limited edition of 222 fountain pens and 99 rollerballs.

The pen comes in a lacquered wooden case designed by Kazuhiko, which emulates the tiered roofs of Japanese medieval castles.

Italy's first pen producer, Montegrappa, began manufacturing pens in 1912 in its factory in Bassano del Grappa in Italy. Utilizing natural celluloid and precious metals, Montegrappa combines traditional methods such, as die-casting, with more recent innovations like low-relief engraving to form their precious art objects. Whether Montegrappa use colors reminiscent of the master painters, or ornamentation suggestive of Baroque palaces, the Italian heritage and romance is infused into each product.