Okumoto IROHA-do 奥本いろは堂

Lately I've discovered that the best place to go stationery shopping in Tokyo are these small local shops that have been around for years and has a stock of items that might be harder to find at the trendy shops overrun with tourists. Okumoto IROHA-do was founded in 1914 in Hiroo, and apparently the shop name came from a conversation with the children's literary writer Iwaya Sazanami, who suggested いろは (iroha) as a name meaning "the first step of anything," the very beginning.