Mitsubishi Kohitsu Shosha Pencil 10B Review

I’ve been on a wild pencil kick lately. I’ve stayed mostly in the HB, B, and 2B range of graphite core hardness, but I was wondering what the really soft pencils were like. I ordered a Tombow Mono Professional 6B, and I thought I could get something darker. Then I tried a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10B Pencil, and that was much darker than the Tombow Mono Professional 6B, I’d say near perfect. The last thing I can think of to try is the Mitsubishi Kohitsu Shosha Pencil in 10B, so I ordered it up to see if it was any darker.

Spoiler Alert: Just stick with your Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10B.

This pencil does come in an excessive but cute package for one singular pencil. It’s supposed to be a rare item, though I found it a few places online.

The pencil itself does look nice: the gold paint job, Hi-Uni like details like the rounded dipped ends, or the two gold foil rings (one more than a Hi-Uni!). But does the looks or performance justify the price increase ($8 at CW Pencils or $6.09 at The Thackery over say a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10B Pencil that costs $2.50 to $2.75?

Not at all. They perform exactly the same. Above’s example shows the Mitsubishi Kohitsu Shosha Pencil in 10B on the left versus the Hi-Uni 10B on the right. Same core widths, same length of pencil (the standard ferrule and eraser-less 7 inches), and best I can tell, contain the exact same 10B core.

Not to say that this is a bad pencil. It glides amazingly smooth across paper and leaves a very dark mark with ease. But you could get 2-3 Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10B’s for the same price, or for the price of 3 10B Kohitsu Shosha Pencils you can buy a 12 pack of Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10B Pencils from JetPens.

Should you buy this pencil? If you are curious, I mean why the hell not? I had a hard enough time not trying it. But if you already have a Hi-Uni 10B, you pretty much already have this pencil at a half to a third of the cost, minimum. I have to give the Mitsubishi Kohitsu Shosha Pencil in 10B the final score of 2 Zaffino Crazy Face Franks out of 5 based off of value alone. Just stick to the Hi-Uni 10B.