When Kobe was struggling to recover from the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, stationery designer Naoyuki Takeuchi would take solace in the vivid colors of nature found around town.
In 2007, the employee of Nagasawa Stationery Center in Kobe's Chuo Ward launched a fountain pen ink reflecting what he saw. It would become the first in a series of products dubbed the Kobe Ink Story.
He named the ink Rokko Green, a name that recalls the dark green forest of Mount Rokko, a popular tourist site in Hyogo Prefecture.