"Some people buy a bunch of toothpicks, perhaps for restaurants and Japanese sweets shops, and there are also many people who buy toothpicks in paulownia boxed as a gift and souvenirs or new year's greetings. There were also many customers from overseas." says Yamamoto-san.

The most popular gifts are a variety of cute patterned toothpicks cases and personalized paulownia boxes. "The most popular is the personalized case. Many people have particular choices and I get the impression that people want them custom-made." There is no limit to the number of characters that can be used to create a one-of-a-kind product, and some people include English, company names, and longer messages.

Ryo Uchiyama, a calligrapher who handles all the work of personalized writing was introduced by the company president of "Bento Sohonten" which also runs a long established bento shop in Nihonbashi. "There is someone interesting, a dancer and a calligrapher." This was the way he was introduced and It has been five years since I said,"you want to try writing something on a paulownia box?". Until then, there was no personalized name writing service, so it was a good encounter.”

He wrote with a comfortable brush stroke, and finished within a blink of an eye and stamps, which indicated his own work.
When I asked about the meaning of the stamp marks, the name "内山崚(Uchiyama Ryo)", the pen name "青崚(Seiryo)", and "舞踊(Buyou)" indicating that he is a dancer. These three-stamps show his highest quality work. This is the only place you can specialily experience a calligrapher's work along withing a hand-cut toothpick.