The Pilot Pen Corporation was founded by Ryosuke Namiki with Masao Wada (和田正雄) in 1918 under the name of the Namiki Manufacturing Company. In 1926 it established overseas offices in Malaysia, Singapore, Boston, London and Shanghai.In 1925 the Namiki brand was launched to market, with lacquer artists Shisui Rokkaku and Gonroku Matsuda invited to make fountain pens. Ryosuke Namiki and Masao Wada (founders of Pilot Co. in 1918) traveled to promote their maki-e pens in Western countries.