Because of the different artistic atmospheres, East Asian countries focus on the development of their own Chinese painting pigments, including the improved pigments of Japanese Chinese painting, while the research and development of watercolor, oil painting pigments and acrylic paints lag behind European and American countries as a whole. Founded in 1900, Holbein is one of Japan's most powerful pigment dealers, and in 1933 it established the Painting Materials Research Institute, gaining experience from the analysis of foreign oil paints, and developed its own set of theories.
 
Holbein is best known for its grinding and filling technology, watercolor and oil paint are produced separately in two factories, and watercolor is also filled exclusively in a third factory in Kosaka, where the pigments are finely ground and evenly dispersed. In addition to high-grade inorganic and organic pigments, its two laboratories also have more than 400 kinds of pigment resources such as fluorescence, pearlescent, and soil pigments of Italian origin, which can be developed vigorously. Holbein selected and mixed 108 artist-quality watercolors with brightness between Windsor Newton and Murray, with vivid colors and high transparency, which are impeccable in terms of monochrome color rendering. But judging from the unique color mixing and blending ability of watercolor, Holbein can be at the bottom of the list.
 
Among the 108 colors of Holbein, there are only 58 kinds of single pigments, which is risky to mix colors, and the second is that Holbein watercolors do not contain cow bile at all, and the fluidity is worse than that of Sminck. This is related to the high development of manga creation in Japan, where drawing manga characters in Holbein watercolors gives excellent control over the colored edges, but it is a disaster for landscape paintings that require extensive rendering.
 
In terms of durability, Holbein is worse than Shenelil, only 71 of the 108 colors have a good durability effect, and if it is used in artistic creation, it is necessary to avoid more color numbers. However, Holbein itself is positioned relatively close to the people, and the price is not high, with 5ml prices ranging from 12-27 yuan, 15ml prices ranging from 28-62 yuan, and the cheapest 12-color set can be started at 150 yuan.
 
Holbein is keen to launch special sets, including collaboration sets with watercolor big friend Fuko, illustrator Yuko Higuchi, and various annual limited editions, with different color styles, ingenious packaging, collectible, and playable.