A favorite amongst Japanese pencil aficionados, Kita-Boshi is a 5th generation pencil maker.  Like many a thoughtful manufacturer, it's a company whose ethos can be read in its aphorisms - from the founder,  “A pencil sacrifices itself to serve people. Both humans and pencils need cores,” to the current president, "You can't write with a pencil unless you sharpen yourself. No matter how good the core is, if you don't sharpen it, you can't dream."