Tomoe River Notebooks to try in 2021

Our favorite Tomoe River notebooks are still on the market but 2020 has not stopped stationery brands from creating new Tomoe River notebooks. If you want to take a look at our list from the past 2 years, you can check it out here: Tomoe River Notebooks to Try in 2019.

There aren’t a lot that came out in 2020. However, some manufacturers have released more than one Tomoe River notebook in their product line up so you will see a few brands appear more than once.

Read: Tomoe River Notebooks to Try in 2020

Galen Leather Leather-bound Notebooks

Best in design

This might be by far the most gorgous Tomoe River notebook we’ve ever reviewed. This is a Tomoe River notebook with a leather cover. It comes in A5 and B6 in two of their standard colors – the crazy horse brown and the crazy horse green. These notebooks have a premium feel to it from the notebook enclosure to the notebook itself.

Read the review here: Notebook Review: Galen Leather Leather-Bound Tomoe River Notebook

Galen Leather Everyday Pad

Best notepad

Another Galen product that has made the list is the Everyday Pad. This notepad is basically the Rhodia Dot Pad of Tomoe River notebooks. This is by far the only Tomoe River notebook (that we know of) that flips up instead of on its side.

Read the review here: Notebook Review: Galen Leather Tomoe River Everyday Pad

Pebble Stationery Co. TN Regular Tomoe River Notebook

Best compact notebook

We’ve recently reviewed this new notebook from Pebble Stationery Co.

Read: Review: Pebble Stationery Co. Traveler’s Tomoe River Notebook

This notebook is quite different from most Tomoe River inserts. PSCo’s TN Tomoe River notebook has a leatherette cover and can be used with or without a Traveler’s Notebook cover.

Pebble Stationery Co. TN Regular-Sized Undated Planner

Best TN refill with template

This is PSCo’s first bespoke planner in their product lineup. This undated planner is similar to the Hobonichi Weeks format. Hobonichi Weeks has a nice, clean weekly format but the paper size is smaller than a regular-sized TN. If you love the Hobonichi Weeks, you will enjoy this notebook.

Cafe Note B6-Slim Tomoe River Journal

Best compact B6

Nanami Paper Company is no stranger on the Tomoe River notebook space. They have been around for quite some time. But the B6 Slim has only come up on our radar (at least on Amazon) recently.

Hobonichi Blank Notebook

Best with grid ruling

This isn’t new but worth mentioning since we weren’t able to feature it in the last roundup. Hobonichi, famous for their Tomoe River annual planners, released a blank version of their Hobonichi Cousin. This is perfect for Hobonichi enthusiasts who dislike pre-printed pages but enjoy the grid spacing of the Hobonichi Cousin. The blank Hobonichi can also be used as a supplementary notebook to the Hobonichi Cousin or the Techo Day Free (which is next on our list).

Correction: Hobonichi ruling is 3.7mm not 3mm 

Hobonichi Techo Day-Free (2021)

Best planner

If the Hobonichi Cousin and the Blank notebook had a baby, this would be it. A happy medium for planners, the Day-Free does not restrict you to specific days in a year.

Desk Bandit Tomoe River

Best in size variety

Desk Bandit is an online stationery retail store based in Australia. They have a nice inventory of fountain pen friendly papers but also sell their own Tomoe River notebooks.

JetPens Kanso Noto

Best for Bullet Journaling or long-form journaling

Japanese stationery online retailer, JetPens, has added another Tomoe River notebook to their lineup. Previously, they only had a notebook refill type of notebook – the Kanso Sasshi. The newest Tomoe River notebook, the Kanso Noto is a 300-page A5 book that’s better used for long-form journaling.