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Hagoromo: the “Rolls-Royce of Chalk”

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Here is the story behind a chalk brand that has generated an unlikely alliance between two countries and led mathematicians to buy ten years of chalk for fear that it will run out.

Hagoromo: the “Rolls-Royce of Chalk”
Photo by: Contri.
January 18, 2021 By Paulette Delgado
Reading time 4 minutes
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Mathematicians have become obsessed with an exceptional chalk brand that, they say, makes it impossible to write a false theorem: the Hagoromo.

Although many schools worldwide have stopped using chalk and have switched to whiteboards, many mathematicians, artists, and other academics agree that this is a mistake because they miss out on the “Rolls-Royce of chalk”, according to mathematician Satyan Devadoss: the Hagoromo Fulltouch.

Due to its silky touch, colors, and structure are almost unbreakable, and it is made to leave little dust when used; mathematicians have become monopolists of this brand of chalk. “The legend around this chalk is that it is impossible to write a fake theorem using the Hagoromo, but I think I have disproved it many times,” says David Eisenbud, professor of mathematics at Berkeley.

This chalk originates from Japan, where the Nihon Chalk Seizosho company started its production in Nagoya in 1932. However, due to damage suffered during World War II, the company had to suspend production, returning in 1947 with the Hagoromo Bungu’s name (Japanese 羽衣 文具:, ‘Hagoromo Stationery’). Although this chalk was born in the 1930s, it was not until the last decades that American mathematicians discovered it, and the cult of the Hagoromo began. Its peak production was in 1990 with 90 million bars. Sadly, these sales were cut in half over the next two decades due to the switch to whiteboards and smartboards.

The Hagoromo cult

What is this chalk made of? It’s a mystery. Some say it has clamshells, others “angel tears,” but the true formula is a secret. What is known is that its production is done in bread mixers, and the dough is poured into a mixer that was originally intended to make udon noodles. From there comes a gray paste of calcium, clay, glue, oyster shells, and other secret ingredients.

Although many mathematicians love it, the Hagoromo was not exported to the United States; it was only available in Japan, so many took advantage of any trip to Japan to stock up on chalk or even asked colleagues who knew they would attend a conference in this country to ask for a reservation. If the scientific community, particularly in mathematics, has since hoarded large amounts of this chalk for fear of running out of reserves, in October 2014, company president Takayasu Watanabe announced that he would close his doors, unleashing chaos in the assiduous community that loves this chalk.

This news paralyzed American academics. Some even calculated how many they would need in 10 to 15 years and bought that amount. Others bought large quantities but later resell them to their colleagues and start a small business. Back then, a box of 72 Hagoromo chalks cost $ 17 (priced up to three to four times higher than other brands of chalk), but resellers were selling them for up to $ 25 by the end of their production in March 2015.

The South Korean teacher who saved Hagoromo chalk

Hagoromo chalk is not only loved in Japan and America. When the owner announced the factory’s closure, Shin Hyeong-Seok, a South Korean teacher, approached the situation differently. He started trying to find a way to make the chalk, with no luck, and then import it to his country.

Shin Hyeong-Seok discovered the Hagoromo in Japan when he was visiting for an investigation into intensive schools’ operation. He entered a staff room and was mesmerized by the chalk’s colors, and from there, he couldn’t leave it.

It so happened that Takako Iwata, one of the daughters of the owner and grandson of Hagoromo’s founder, Takayasu Watanabe, went to South Korea to study, which allowed Shin to get closer to Watanabe. Although skeptical, Mr. Watanabe agreed to form a business relationship with the teacher, which lasted for more than a decade.

When Watanabe announced his company’s closure, he was diagnosed with cancer and his children had their careers, and there was no one to stay with the family business. Due to the relationship they had established, Shin Hyeong-Seok proposed to bring the technology to South Korea so that he could make the chalk from there, and Watanabe accepted.

“[Watanabe] really tried to stop me. He said, ‘You are a teacher with no experience in manufacturing. You should not make this decision lightly,'” says Shin about Watanabe. “I told him I think Hagoromo is the best chalk in the world. Some products are meant to disappear as times change, but the best quality product should be the last to disappear.”

The master used all of his savings to learn and perfect Hagoromo’s creation; Watanabe even traveled to the factory in South Korea to inspect the quality and give him the go-ahead. This is how the Sejongmall company was created, which since 2016 has been producing the new chalk called Full touch Chalk, the new Hagoromo production company.

Although the chalk was saved, many people were upset by this move. They accused Mr. Watanabe of being a traitor for transferring technology to South Korea as he sold the trademark rights and two of his machines to Sejongmall. Even the Japanese chalk art association feared that they would produce it of inferior quality only to sell it cheaper and export it to their country, forcing manufacturers to undercut.

But Takako Iwata, who served as an interpreter between Shin Hyeong-Seok and Takayasu Watanabe, said that his father did not care about these criticisms. Everyone desired to preserve the creation of the Hagoromo and improve the relationship between the two countries. Iwata pointed out that they did not know how their product had become so beloved. His father had no idea about the number of followers chalk has worldwide, even how it has become a cult for mathematicians worldwide.

Mr. Watanabe learned of the phenomenon due to the large increase in Americans’ orders who bought enough quantities to keep for decades. Takayasu Watanabe passed away in Japan on July 31, 2020, but the legendary chalk will continue.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0