Mitsu-Bishi 9600 6B

About Masaki Yamato

Masaki Pencil Manufacturing Company, the forerunner to MITSUBISHI PENCIL COMPANY, LIMITED was established in Naito Shinjuku (now the Naito area of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward) in 1887 by Niroku Masaki. It was at the 1878 Paris World Fair that Mr. Masaki observed a pencil for the very first time, and he immediately was inspired to create one for himself. He began performing extensive research and eventually succeeded in producing Japan’s first pencil. In 1901, after numerous setbacks and repeated experimental mistakes, he finally persuaded the Ministry of Communications (the current Ministry of Internal A f fairs and Communications) to purchase pencils that he had designed especially for government agency use. 　Relieved that his days of frustration were now behind him, Mr. Masaki searched for a way to mark this momentous occasion and eventually came up with the idea of registering a commemorative trademark. As his pencils for government agency use were produced in three grades of hardness (lead core density)— appropriately termed No.1, No.2, and No.3 — he decided to engrave them with the Mitsubishi "three-diamond" mark, derived from the "three fish scales" of the Masaki family crest.