The 2010 is a vintage Tombow pencil. I was lucky enough to be be able to purchase a used box a few years ago, though the box has some tears, and isn’t full.
The writing is entirely in Japanese, and beyond my comprehension. The Tombow dragonfly graphic is wonderful, rendered with great detail.
The pencils themselves are marked in silver on green:
H.O.P. “Tombow” Pencil [logo] HB = 2010 D
If anyone can shed light on the meaning of the “H.O.P.” or circled “D”, please do.
After sharpening, the pencils seem somewhat scratchy and sub-par – not like the first-rate Tombow pencils of today.
The following information was received from a kind reader:
“H.O.P” stands for “Harunosuke Ogawa Pencil”.
Harunosuke Ogawa was the founder of Tombow.
Hi
The Japanese writing on the side of the box says:
‘Tombo Pencil Manufacturer Ltd. Tokyo’
(Literal Translation:
‘Tokyo, Limited Company, Tombo Pencil Manufacturer’
The packaging is really interesting because it is printed in Showa/Taisho style, certain to appeal to older Japanese for the nostalgic value.
As Geraint notes, the Japanese text literally reads “#2010” and “Tokyo” “Incorporated” and “Tombo Pencil Manufacturing” The last three terms together would be listed as “Tombow Pencil Manufacturing, Inc., Tokyo” today. But more interesting to note is that the characters for company use an archaic form of the character for “to meet”, denoting that this box would have been printed before the modern consolidation of characters that happened around the Taisho/Showa era. That character (13 strokes) is not used anymore, making this a pretty cool package, indeed!!!
The circled D might stand for “dragonfly” or maybe where the pencil was made or the grade/composition of the lead.
Another interesting point is that in Japanese, the dragonfly is called “tonbo” and I believe that it why there is a dragonfly on the box. I am sure that the company name is based on this.
Bryan, thank you very much for sharing this information and analysis.