Sakura Color Products Corporation
 | |
| Kabushiki gaisha | |
| Industry | Stationery |
| Founded | Osaka, Japan (1921) [1] |
| Headquarters | Morinomiya-chuo, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Teiichi Nishimura (President) [1] |
| Products | Art materials |
| Revenue | ¥ 90 million [1] |
Number of employees | 1,200 [1] |
| Subsidiaries |
Talens Japan (Osaka and Tokyo) Shin Nihon Zokei (Tokyo) Daishowa Printing (Osaka) Royal-Talens B.V. (Netherlands) Bruynzeel-Sakura B.V. (Netherlands) Sakura Color Products of America, Inc. (US) Shanghai Sakura Stationery (Shanghai, China PR) |
| Website | www.craypas.com |
Sakura Color Products Corporation (株式会社サクラクレパス) is a Japanese company headquartered in Morinomiya-chuo, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan, which produces a variety of stationery items. Although the firm commercializes a wide range of products, Sakura is more known by its marker pens, such as the Micron liners.
History
The company was initially founded as a crayons manufacturer in 1921. By 1924, Sakura invented the first-ever oil pastel that combined oil and pigment, which was patented globally as the "Cray-pas (クレパス)" 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 pens lines. Gel ink pens are currently produced by many stationery companies.
The North-American division of the company, "Sakura Color Products of America, Inc." was established in Hayward, California in 1986. Other division of Sakura in Asia, "Shanghai Sakura International Trading Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 上海櫻花文化用品有限公司)" was established in Shanghai, China in 2002.
Products
The following is a list with the large range of products commercialized by Sakura: [2]
| Category | Products |
|---|---|
| Pens | ballpoint pens, gel ink pens, refills |
| Pencils | Mechanical pencils, colored pencils |
| Markers | Water based and permanent marker pens, highlighters, brush pens |
| Writing accessories | Erasers, whiteboard erasers, glue pens |
| Art materials | Crayons, pastels, oil pastels, water colors, acrylic paints, gouaches, oil paints, water-soluble printing colors, brushes, palettes |
Artists
Sakura "Pigma" markers have been widely used by many comic book artists to ink their pages. Some of them are George Pérez and Ethan Van Sciver.
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 pastels, 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.[3][4] There have been 17,000 submissions each year with winning entries displayed online and some have been published in printed material.[5]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Sakura corporate profile
- ↑ Product lines
- ↑ "Cray-Pas' sponsors 'colorful' contest". San Francisco Chronicle. 20 October 2001. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
- ↑ "Cray-Pas Wonderful, Colorful World Contest" (PDF). Michaels Stores, Inc. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
- ↑ McGuire, Barbara A. (2001). Embracing child art : projects for grown-ups to keep and treasure. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. p. 15. ISBN 0-87341-985-5.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sakura Color Products. |
- Sakura Color Products Corporation global website (in English)
- Sakura Japan (in Japanese)
- Sakura Color Products of America, Inc. (US)
- Shanghai Sakura Stationery Co., Ltd. (China)
- Bruynzeel-Sakura B.V. (Netherlands)