And yet, when the Bungu Joshi Haku writing material fair was held in Osaka’s Umeda district in March, the booth of a Paraglass glass pen maker was quickly swamped with visitors seeking items ...

With a glass pen, one could write a paragraph or up to half a page without having to reload the tip. Conventional dip pens typically had to be reloaded with ink by the end of each sentence.

Growing up in Saudi Arabia, I learned cursive with a fountain pen in the third grade as part of the standard curriculum. I wasn’t good at school, and being left-handed but forced to write with ...