Assistance Identifying an Ikeda Cartridge

You are correct, this was the first series of cartridges Ikeda designed for his new company Ikeda Sound Lab, after the demise of Fidelity Research. As far as I know it is the only cantileverless MC in the history of audio.

The design matched the shape of the Ikeda headshell and came in a range of different colours. The top models had an integrated headshell (similar to the earlier Fidelity Research FR7 series), called the Supremo and the Musa. The gold coloured version was the top of the ’normal’ range, called Rex. The version with the Kanji character seems to have been a variation of that, perhaps aimed at the domestic market. But this is somewhat unclear. There were also versions made for the Jeff Rowland and Cello brands (in gold and silver colour respectively).

Either way, you have one of the best cartridges ever designed. So if it is still up to spec and the stylus is okay you are in for something truly special. Enjoy!

Nice score!
Sounds like it is a better deal than the TT itself might have been.
Enjoy it until it can no longer be used as I have never seen one for sale.
I know there are a few Ikeda users on here can possibly say more.

Great stuff, I usually get broken Grado carts on any TT I buy!
😂😂😂

With that said very first result on eBay.
Exactly as Edgewear said....

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F264227689722

@neonknight

Just look at ALL Ikeda cartridges here, hope you will find yours.
The J.R. is just OEM for US market, normally overpriced compared to genuine Ikeda for Japanese market. 
BTW only cantilever-less design is worth the attention, some of them are very rare, this is what Ikeda-San assembled by himself, new Ikeda cartridges are no longer made by the master (RIP).

I was lucky to buy Ikeda 9 III on dedicated headshell for my FR64s tonearm with B-60.

And later purchased Ikeda IT-345 tonearm, it was the old arm, not the new CR-1.

No time to compare those beauties, probably next year.

@edgewear Thanks for the information! It certainly is appreciated. So as I read this the gold body cantileverless cartridges that Ikeda built were upper tier offerings, irregardless of what they were named?

The Kanji labeled cart was likely a domestic product, and probably a forerunner of the Rex in terms of branding, but looks to be the same architecture?

This cartridge sounds lovely, the owner who had this did not play it much. He was much more a digital guy, and had this table with about 150 audiophile pressing records total.

Ikeda Sound Labs no longer rebuilds these cartridges, so its going to be in the realm of the retipper. I wonder if those who rebuild London Decca would be a good choice for servicing it in the future. I also considered VAS as it is a domestic company to me. At the moment I am just gathering information, and trying to line up a future plan for whenever this is going to be required.