Sakura Deals — Compare Sale Prices & Find the Best Discount UK

There's a version of Sakura's history that starts with the Pigma Micron pen, because that's the product most UK artists know first. But the fuller version starts considerably earlier and considerably more ambitously — in Osaka in 1921, when Shinkichi Mori founded a company that would go on to invent not one but three entire product categories that the art and stationery world still depends on today.

I've spent sixteen years in the UK art supplies industry and now run Discount Art Supplies — a price comparison and deals platform used by over 36,000 UK artists every week. Sakura occupies an interesting position in our community because different audiences know completely different parts of its range. Illustrators and comic artists reach for the Pigma Micron without necessarily knowing who makes it or what else the same company produces. Journaling and Zentangle communities use Gelly Roll pens as a default without necessarily connecting them to the same Japanese brand that makes their fineliners. And the Koi watercolour range, beloved by travelling sketchers and urban sketchers specifically for its portability and quality, sits in yet another corner of the art market with its own dedicated following.

The oil pastel story is worth telling properly, because it slightly revises a history most artists think they know. Sakura launched Cray-Pas in 1925 — a product they explicitly describe as the world's first oil pastel — making it the originator of the medium twenty-four years before the more famous Sennelier and Picasso collaboration of 1949. The exact historical claims are complex and the professional-grade oil pastel as we know it today owes much to Sennelier's 1948-49 development for Picasso, but Sakura's 1925 Cray-Pas is a genuinely significent early chapter in the medium's history rather than a footnote to it.

The Pigma Micron is where Sakura's reputation in fine art most firmly rests. Introduced in 1982, it was the first pen to use PIGMA ink — a carbon-based pigment ink that is genuinly archival rather than merely water-resistant, rated to resist fading, water and chemicals for over a hundred years when used on acid-free paper. That's not a marketing claim, it's a specification that the archiving and document preservation community verified and adopted, which is why Pigma Micron pens became standard equipment in technical illustration, architectural drawing and conservation work long before the journaling and Zentangle communities made them mainstream. The range now covers nib sizes from 005 (0.2mm) through to 08 (0.5mm) plus brush tips and chisel tips, and comes in an extensive colour range including metallic variants.

The Gelly Roll pen of 1984 was a genuinly revolutionary product at the time — the world's first gel ink pen, combining the smooth flow of liquid ink with the clean, controlled writing of a ballpoint. The white Gelly Roll in particular became a cult tool for artists adding highlights, corrections and fine detail to dark paper and dark backgrounds, a use that no previous pen type had served reliably. The Moonlight and Stardust variants extended the range into speciality inks, and the pens retain a devoted following among mixed media artists, illustrators and journaling communities worldwide.

The Koi range — watercolours, colour brushes and field sketching kits — represents Sakura's most recent significant contribution to the fine art market, bringing Japanese watercolour quality and pigment tradition to a price and form factor that travelling sketchers specifically embraced. The Koi Water Brush pens and pocket field sketch kits are a fixture in the urban sketching community in particular, valued for their genuinly portable format without the quality compromises that plague cheaper travel watercolour sets.

Getting the best Sakura deals in the UK means comparing across retailers, since pricing on Pigma Micron sets and Koi watercolour kits in particular varies meaningfully between stockists. Cass Art and Jacksons both carry comprehensive ranges. Our price comparison below pulls live pricing across UK stockists so you can see the best current deal before you order.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Sakura founded? Sakura Color Products Corp was founded in 1921 in Osaka, Japan, by Shinkichi Mori.

Did Sakura invent the oil pastel? Sakura launched Cray-Pas in 1925, which the company identifies as the world's first oil pastel — predating the more widely cited Sennelier and Picasso collaboration of 1949 by 24 years, though the latter is generally credited with establishing the professional-grade oil pastel format.

What is PIGMA ink? PIGMA ink is Sakura's proprietary carbon-based pigment ink used in Pigma Micron pens, rated as genuinly archival — resistant to fading, water and chemicals for over a hundred years on acid-free paper. It was the first ink of its kind when introduced in 1982.

Did Sakura invent the gel ink pen? Yes — the Gelly Roll, launched in 1984, was the world's first gel ink pen.

Does Sakura have a discount code? Sakura's pricing is set through its UK stockists rather than a single central discount code. Check our price comparison below for the best current sale price across all major UK retailers.