Uni / Mitsubishi Pencil (三菱鉛筆)

Mitsubishi Pencil registered its three diamonds in 1903, seventeen years before the car conglomerate adopted its own: the two houses have never shared capital, and the coincidence irritates the stationer enough that it now signs itself "uni" internationally.

The brand built its reputation on lead. The Uni pencil, launched in 1958 in its burgundy case, aimed for a consistency of hardness and blackness that post-war Japanese pencils lacked; it remains the standard for drawing competitions and multiple-choice exams. On the pen side, the Jetstream imposed a hybrid ink so low in drag that it redefined what a ballpoint was expected to feel like.