Onishi Seisakusho Tortoiseshell Ballpoint Thin Barrel Pen, [BK22]

Material: acetate Size (approx.): 137 x 13 mm (when in use: 140 mm) Tortoiseshell products are ancient, historically valuable and rare craft items that are stored in the Shosoin Repository. Nowadays, a wide variety of goods and products are made from the petroleum-based resin "plastic," but using machine tools, we carve each piece of lumber out, polish it, and carefully finish it. ■Originally, it referred to the processed shell of the hawksbill sea turtle. Because it is soft and very easy to process, it has been prized as a material for crafts and ornaments, but due to human reasons such as habitat loss due to development and overfishing, the population has drastically decreased, and it has been designated as an endangered species IB by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In Japan, commercial trade has been prohibited in principle since the convention was enacted in 1975. Nowadays, it is difficult to obtain natural tortoiseshell, so tortoiseshell-like resins and plastics are used to make processed products, crafts, and eyeglass parts.