Nanala Design x Nomado Store Yubokumin Pen Case

 The Yubokumin Planner was one of our first collaborations with Nanala Designs, a thing of beauty, each one is hand made in minute quantities by master craftsman Kato-san in the Okayama Prefecture in Japan from the highest quality locally-sourced vegetable-tanned leather. 

Read our Blog article for full details on the Yubokumin project.

We've been designing and launching new collaboration products this year as a way of celebrating our store's fifth anniversary.  The original Yubokumin (literally "nomad", “traveller” or “explorer” in Japanese) is a hard act to follow and we knew that the next design we would work on with Nanala would have to be special. Rather than just rescale the existing product and offer a smaller version, we decided to design a zipped pen case.  

The case had to be instantly recognisable as being part of the Yubokumin family and based on the same or similar design criteria.

Design Brief Summary :

- Handcrafted in Japan: we've been working for the past 5 years with Japanese craftsmen.

- Made of high quality leather. Nanala use the same Himeji leather as for the TN insert and original Yubokumin. This very high quality material is strong and supple, but robust and has an interesting lightly textured finish which gives it an organic feel. The coloured leathers are hand dyed, with the exception of the dark brown version, which is made from Italian Buttero leather.

- Very practical without being over-the-top (i.e. sufficient storage without being too large or complicated).

- Compatible with most fountain pens on the market  

- Refined finish (rounded corners, neat detailing, hand stamped sunflower logo and fitted sunflower concho, etc.).

- Zip closure, to keep your precious pens from falling out.

- Reversed pen slots to avoid the pen caps scratching each other

- Compact dimensions (closed & empty.): 90 x 200 x 20mm

The sunflower pattern is painstakingly hand stamped, millimetre by millimetre. The concho is entirely hand made in Nanala's workshop.

If you love the Yubokumin Planner or Japanese leathercraft in general and fountain pens, you'll be delighted with this slim and exquisitely finished pen case!