Stationery shopping in Japan with Mark+Fold founder Amy

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Sekaido

Sekaido is the ultimate art shop — floor after floor of card, board, brushes and glue, lit in that pleasingly functional fluorescent glow only a proper trade supplier can pull off. Open since 1940 and spread across five levels near Shinjuku Sanchome Station, it's known for its 20% discount on list prices and a catalogue so vast that staff can find almost anything on request. Sekaido rewards browsing over hunting — it's less about finding one specific thing and more about the sheer, slightly overwhelming range of a proper working art store, used by professionals and hobbyists alike since long before "stationery shopping" was a trip in itself.

What I loved

• Floor after floor of card, board, brushes and glue, lit in that pleasingly functional fluorescent glow
• Open since 1940, spread across five levels, known for its 20% discount on list prices
• A catalogue so vast that staff can find almost anything on request
• The pens and paints section — a catalogue of colour so wonderful you could just stand and scan the shelves
• Stickers with type on them, an entire section devoted to glue (so many glues), and tape sold in bundles, in every width imaginable

What I bought

• Masking tape
• Stickers set in Gill lettering
• A set of origami erasers

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Loft (Shibuya)

Loft is an extensive, satisfying, comprehensive catalogue of everything — broad enough to appeal to school kids browsing pens after class and adults hunting for a proper diary, without ever feeling unsophisticated. Spread over seven floors of central Shibuya, with around 80,000 items, the basement level is stationery heaven: stickers, washi tape in every pattern going, pens, planners and paper goods stacked wall to wall.

What I loved

• The scale of it and the way it's zoned — different areas for different obsessions
• The sheer breadth of who it's for, from schoolboys to design-literate adults, all clearly delighted to be there
• Seven floors of central Shibuya, around 80,000 items, with a basement level of stationery heaven — stickers, washi tape in every pattern, pens, planners and paper goods
• The demo notebooks and diaries, laid out to test and handle

What I bought

• A roll of tape printed with the times of day

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Kakimori

Kakimori has a sleeker feel than most — wood-panelled throughout, with a clear focus on calligraphy and noticeably fewer notebooks than expected, given its reputation. Opened in Kuramae in 2010 by third-generation stationer Takuma Hirose, the shop is best known for its made-to-order notebook service: choose your paper, cover and binding, and watch it assembled in front of you in under an hour. Wiro binding isn't a personal favourite, and it's easy to see why offering something thread-sewn or glue-bound would be tricky to do at that speed — but the idea itself, of building a notebook exactly to spec, is a lovely one.

What I loved

• The sleeker, wood-panelled feel throughout, with a clear focus on calligraphy
• The made-to-order notebook service — choose your paper, cover and binding, assembled in front of you in under an hour
• The idea of building a notebook exactly to spec
• The ink pots, the reusable notebook covers (an approach we take too), and the glass-nibbed calligraphy pens
• Sister shop Inkstand by Kakimori, where you can mix your own bespoke fountain pen ink

What I bought

• Ink
• Notebook refills and covers

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Kyukyodo (Ginza)

Kyukyodo has real heritage — founded in Kyoto in 1663, originally as a pharmacy, before turning its attention to incense, calligraphy and paper goods, and later serving as official stationer to the Japanese Imperial Household. The Ginza store, reached through a distinctive arched brick entrance, has a tightly packed, almost bazaar-like feel.

What I loved

• The real heritage — founded in Kyoto in 1663, later serving as official stationer to the Japanese Imperial Household
• The distinctive arched brick entrance and tightly packed, almost bazaar-like feel
• The decorative papers and the beautiful fish motif pieces
• Shelf after shelf of irresistible little cards and envelopes
• Upstairs — historic books, specialist calligraphy brushes (including some enormous ones), and trays for mixing your own ink
• The whole shop's atmosphere of barely audible gasps of joy, other customers included

What I bought

• The fish motif pieces
• A stack of notelets and envelopes

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Muji

What I loved

• How much more expansive the stationery section is compared to the UK stores
• The Ginza flagship — ten floors, with an entire level dedicated to stationery, fragrance and everyday paper goods
• The real range — fun, accessible basics alongside simpler, more considered bindings
• The genuinely nice calendar and planner layouts, and the concept behind the planning booklets (weekly, daily, yearly)
• The deliberate simplicity and restrained palette running through all of it

What I bought

• A snap-shut pencil case with a magnetic close
• A paper version of the reusable leather covers used in our own notebooks

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Takeo

Takeo is a paper supplier working with mills across Japan, many of them in the foothills of Mount Fuji, drawing on the exceptionally clean mountain water there. The Jinbocho showroom, MIHONCHO HONTEN, displays thousands of paper types arranged for browsing and testing.

What I loved

• The Jinbocho showroom, MIHONCHO HONTEN, displaying thousands of paper types arranged for browsing and testing
• The incredible range of textures and colours, including clever finishes that mimic metallic sheen or watermarking
• The colour-coding throughout the space, making an enormous, potentially overwhelming range genuinely easy to navigate
• Our hosts, who were wonderful and generous with both time and knowledge
• A special swatch book of very traditional papers, tucked away at the back of the room
• A vending machine on site

What I bought

• Kindly gifted swatch books and paper samples (Takeo operates more as a trade showroom for designers and printers than a retail shop)

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Awagami Factory Shop

Totally different to anywhere else on this list — quiet, and genuinely in the middle of nowhere, in the Yoshinogawa valley of rural Tokushima. Awagami is an eighth-generation, family-run washi paper mill, still run by the Fujimori family, producing handmade paper from kozo, bamboo, mitsumata, gampi and hemp fibres using techniques largely unchanged for centuries.

What I loved

• Meeting the people who actually make the paper, and watching it happen live from a window looking directly into the working factory floor
• Getting hands-on in the papermaking process myself earlier that day, which made the visit more meaningful still
• The huge range of specialist paper, including experimental one-off pieces in wildly different textures and techniques
• The connection between the making and the shop
• The history steeped into every corner of the place, and meeting the Fujimori family themselves

What I bought

• Swatch books
• A huge roll on a string grid
• An indigo-dipped sheet
• One sheet deliberately scrunched for texture
• A handful of smaller sample pieces, which went straight into our own Stationery Subscription parcels

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Kyukyodo (Kyoto Honten)

A totally different experience to the Ginza branch — different enough that it barely felt like the same shop, spread across two buildings facing each other on Teramachi-dori. This is Kyukyodo's original home, founded here in Kyoto in 1663, on more or less the same site it occupies today, next to Honno-ji temple.

What I loved

• How different it felt to the Ginza branch, despite being the same shop — spread across two buildings facing each other on Teramachi-dori
• Being Kyukyodo's original home, founded here in Kyoto in 1663, on more or less the same site it occupies today
• The interior and lighting alone
• The emphasis on calligraphy and cards over notebooks — though the notebooks it does stock come in linen and leather reusable covers, pleasingly similar in spirit to our own
• The huge calligraphy brushes on display

What I bought

• A set of small cards for subscribers

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Kyoto Calligraphy Specialist

What I loved

• Gold-edged cards to take your "neat handwriting" up a notch
• Beautifully organised and labelled packets of paper
• A lovely little selection of boxes and stamps
• That this was one of many shops found by wandering in — not famous names, not always with an obvious sign outside, as if local people simply knew where to go to seek out beautiful paper

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On the list for next time