Tombow (トンボ鉛筆)
The dragonfly of Japanese writing: the Mono eraser and the dual-tip markers of illustrators.
- Founded
- 1913
- Headquarters
- Tokyo, Japan
- Sector
- Stationery, drawing
- Flagship product
- Mono, Dual Brush, Fudenosuke
Tombow means "dragonfly", an insect Japan associates with perseverance because it never flies backwards. Founded in 1913, the firm first made pencils before finding its global emblem in 1969: the Mono eraser, a white rectangle banded in blue, white and black, born from the case of a high-end pencil of the same name.
The brand then moved towards illustration. The Dual Brush — water-based markers with a flexible brush at one end and a fine tip at the other — became the standard tool of hand lettering and illustrated journals, to the point that their 108-colour chart serves as a common language for an entire online community.
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