is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

manufacturing company headquartered in Morinomiya-chūō, Chūō-ku,

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, which produces a variety of

stationery Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter paper) ...

products as well a wide range of

art materials Arts media is the material and tools used by an artist, composer or designer to create a work of art, for example, "pen and ink" where the pen is the tool and the ink is the material. Here is a list of types of art and the media used within tho ...

. Nevertheless, Sakura is mostly known by its

marker pen A marker pen, fine liner, marking pen, felt-tip pen, felt pen, flow marker, sign pen (in South Korea), vivid (in New Zealand), texta (in Australia), sketch pen (in South Asia) or koki (in South Africa), is a pen which has its own ink source a ...

s, such as the ''Pigma'' line.Sakura Pigna Micron review
by Alan Lee, January 2016Sakura Pigma: a comprehensive guide
on JetPens

History

The company started as a

crayon A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax an ...

s manufacturer in 1921. By 1924, Sakura invented the first-ever oil pastel that combined oil and pigment, which was patented globally as the "" trademark. In 1982, the firm launched its famous ''Pigma'' marker pen lines. In 1984, Sakura invented the first gel-based ink, featured in its new

ballpoint pen A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen (Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point". ...

s lines.

Gel ink pen A gel pen uses ink in which pigment is suspended in a water-based gel. Because the ink is thick and opaque, it shows up more clearly on slick surfaces than the typical inks used in ballpoint or felt tip pens. Gel pens can be used for many types ...

s are currently produced by many stationery companies. In 1991 Sakura acquired the Dutch company

Royal Talens Royal Talens is a Dutch company located in Apeldoorn that specializes in art materials. The company produces and markets its own products, apart of commercializing other licensed brands such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Bruynzeel. Products commercialise ...

, and in 1997 the dutch pencil maker Bruynzeel. The North-American division of the company, "Sakura Color Products of America, Inc." was established in

Hayward, California Hayward () is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda Coun ...

in 1986. Other division of Sakura in Asia, "Shanghai Sakura International Trading Co., Ltd. ()" was established in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China in 2002.

Products

The following is a list with the large range of products commercialized by Sakura:

Cray-Pas Wonderful, Colorful World Contest

Sakura of America started the annual national art contest in the United States in 1996. The contest is open to all U.S. students grades K through 8 to create a picture that is drawn mostly with

oil pastel An oil pastel is a painting and drawing medium formed into a stick which consists of pigment mixed with a binder mixture of non-drying oil and wax. They differ from other pastel sticks which are made with a gum or methyl cellulose binder, and ...

s, preferably Cray-Pas. The judging is done by separate grade categories: K-2, 3-5 and 6-8. Three winners in each category are medalists and 25 more students are awarded honorable mention. There have been 17,000 submissions each year with winning entries displayed online and some have been published in printed material.

References

External links

*
Sakura of America
{{Art materials brands Manufacturing companies established in 1921 Manufacturing companies based in Osaka Art materials brands Artists' acrylic paint brands Gouache brands Oil paint brands Watercolor brands Pen manufacturers Japanese brands Japanese stationery Japanese companies established in 1921