As a boy in the early 1980s, I would spend many happy hours in the art supplies and stationery section of our local department store, standing in dazed and awed contemplation of the creative possibilities inherent in each of the wonderful products available.
I didn’t realize, then, that my place of devotion was merely a drive-thru chapel in the religion of notebooks, paper, pen and ink, and that, in Tokyo, the city where I would one day make my home, there were comparative cathedrals.
Today, I plan to take a stroll around just three of the capital’s staggeringly well-stocked emporiums and breathe in their intoxicating incense. I’ll try not to spend my fee for this article in the first four minutes, and I won’t leave until I’ve tried all the felt-tip pens.
Shinjuku: Sekaido 世界堂
Sekaido’s flagship Shinjuku store, is an unimaginably comprehensive warehouse-paradise of art supplies and stationery, held in equally high esteem by material-hungry creative locals and those that make their pilgrimages from around the world. The conveniently located six-story cornucopia has built its reputation over seven decades, during which time it has served as a dependable first choice shopping spot for artists and designers, art and design-lovers, and people who just happen to need a pencil sharpener.
Cards for Unusual Occasions
Upon entering the store, my attention is immediately attracted by an eye-popping array of postcards and greeting cards. Somewhat easier to find today, these ubiquitous markers of high days and holidays in the west were once relatively hard to come by in Japan. Still, it is worth remembering a good source, and Sekaido has the lot; from somewhat kitschy skyline views, through pears with beaks that ‘hatch’ from onion-eggs, all the way up to a pipe-smoking dog.
Apart from a few choice notebooks and pens, these psychedelic missives-in-the-making, are the main draw of this first-floor entrance hall, which is otherwise stocked with the useful, but not thrilling, glue-sticks and bulldog clips of workaday office life.
Desirable Design Supplies
Riding the escalator in temptingly close proximity to on-offer prints and posters by the likes of Matisse, Miró, and Savignac, I arrive at the second floor, where things really start to get interesting. Listed on the store guide as Design Supplies, the breathtaking array of materials on offer here seem pitched toward an intriguing alternate reality, where Adobe’s inescapable software does not exist, and design is still the dominion of horn-rimmed inky-fingered bright young things.
Drafting boards, drawing boards, and every desirable shade of deliciously opaque gauche are here, alongside non-warping cardstock in a variety of weights, and spray paints in metallic and luminous hues. Every type of needlessly sleek mechanical pencil, glues of many strengths and stickinesses, colored pencils and inks, and sticky-back plastic (which can be cut to order), share shelf space with an overstretched spectrum of felt-tip pens. It is truly wonderful.
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Mysterious creative ley lines converge on the third floor art department, sending invitational vibrations to every one-day, someday, and Sunday painter for miles, as well as the fortunate few who make a living refining Sekaido’s oils into saleable art. There are walls of oil paints and watercolors, from the company’s own-brand to deluxe European imports, canvases stretched and unstretched, primed and otherwise, and highly appealing pochade painting boxes which would look just the thing with a big straw hat.
Clay of many colors and densities, as well as the somewhat more technical tools of the printmaker, fill the rest of the space, and there are bespoke framing options on the floors above, but I am overwhelmed and in need of a break. It takes all of my strength not to leave with a royal blue painting smock.
Shinjuku: Hands ハンズ
Floating through an exquisite cloud of, no doubt costly, scent, I pass through the halcyon halls of Takashimaya Times Square, before finding myself, eventually, in the care of the ever-dependable Hands (formerly known as Tokyu Hands). Selling everything from parasols to cutting-edge kitchen gimmickry, the self-described “creative life store” offers an unbeatable mooch-about for genuine consumers and window-shopping potterers alike.
I find the colorfully curated stationery, much of which seems aimed toward a young and fairly unserious crowd, on the fourth floor. Here, there are stickers in an infinite variety and at such microscopically miniature scale that if they happened to feature an image of my own tragicomic visage I would be none the wiser. Erasers are available in an encyclopedic array, resembling the flora, fauna and foodstuffs of the world, and there are cuddle-worthy pencil cases in the form of Shaun the Sheep and Elmo.
This abundance of kawaii confections, however, is not at the expense of actual, functional stationery, which fills gently groaning shelves as far as the eye can see. There are notebooks suitable for scribblers and sages, days and days of diaries with pages in ever-more delineated detail, and for time travelers, there are Filofaxes, luxurious and leathery, with their special hole-punched paper also on offer in pleasingly categorized reams.
As long as Hands remains, the denizens of Shinjuku will never go short of writing implements, or an air-conditioned and pleasant place to while away an hour on a sweltering August afternoon. Having achieved that goal to my own satisfaction, I’m on my way again.
Shibuya: Loft ロフト
At the entrance to Shibuya’s Loft, I stop to admire both the time-tested minimalism of the establishment’s logo (designed by Ikko Tanaka), and the display of spinning cogs that repeatedly break and then repair its functional lines. This attention to detail is reflected throughout the building, which with its bold-yellow and muted-gray color scheme recalls the slightly sharp design trends of the 1980s, the decade in which the store was launched.
Similar to Hands, Loft presents itself as a slightly elevated form of department store, offering a “lifestyle” shopping experience aimed at sections of society that wouldn’t set foot in the capital’s fustier establishments. This demographic is reflected in the basement stationery and art supply department, where exuberant youths and fashion-conscious young families are browsing the carefully selected semi-affordable luxuries that are presented in skillfully planned displays.
These tasteful and on-trend wares include, notebooks ranging from flimsy and faux-utilitarian to indestructibly embossed and gilded, many limited edition pens and the ink with which to fill them (in delicate and unexpected shades), and writing paper in earthy organic tones, to be paired with individual envelopes (allowing you to mix or match the letters that you’ll never write, to your own exacting standards). Here once again, arranged in color-chart order, just waiting for my trembling fingers to uncap them, are the felt-tip pens. Go home old man, you’ve had enough.
Overload
While each of these exceptional outlets, with their own distinct styles and offerings, cannot be recommended highly enough, deciding if a visit to all three in a single afternoon is too much of a good thing or not, probably comes down to whether, like me, you suffer an incurable and expensive obsession with the tangible tools of human communication and self expression, or you just happen to need a pencil sharpener.
How to Get To Tokyo’s Best Stationery Stores
Sekaido is only a short walk from JR Shinjuku Station which is one of Japan’s most connected stations.
Hands is also a short walk from Shinjuku Station and very near Takashimaya Times Square
Loft Shibuya is very near JR Shibuya Station. About 5 minutes walk from the station, it’s very easy to identify from the street.
