Kasumigaura blue

It’s been a while since my last post…I know it probably hasn’t been that long, but it seems like forever for me because I’ve been really busy with mundane everyday stuff so haven’t had time to play with inks or anything else 🙈

Here is a quick one, an old Joyful-2 release that’s no longer available 😬

As usual, they’re on 52g Tomoe River, Midori MD, Graphilo and Paperholic (clockwise from top left).

Close-up of each:

It’s not that special so don’t feel too sad that this is discontinued 😅 the bottle is completely unlabelled and the sticker on the outside of the box is just a homemade DIY printer job, probably from a bubble jet but I won’t try to verify that~

Doroai

Looking for a blue black? How about one that is buttery smooth and has a coppery sheen?

Allow me to bring to your attention this Pen Gallery Hougado offering!

As usual, swatches are clockwise from top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic

Close ups:

You’ll be relieved to know that I don’t have a story about this crazy sheener, I was just shopping for Uranari Green from the same store and knew I needed this one (amongst others), clicked buy and emptied my wallet 😬

I recommend a dry writer to go with this ink if you want to bring out the blue, otherwise you’d be writing with all sheen over a rather dark base.

Sanyasou

When you mention “Pen and Message”, a store in Kobe, most fountain pen people would perhaps immediately think “Cigar”, the ink it is most famous for. Cigar actually has seven ink siblings and I’ve picked their blurple offering to feature in this post.

The name Sanyasou (山野草) means wild mountain grass, or mountain weeds. I sometimes see this written as Yasunori Yamano, this is a mis-transliteration by Google perpetuated innocently by people who don’t necessarily have the Japanese skills to know better. There is actually a whole bunch of other inks with the same issue and I will try to cover them in another post.

**Boring bit alert**

You don’t have to take my word for it, but please be aware that Google translate is wrong a lot, especially with Kanji names. Your best bet would be to actually ask the shop or whoever it is that came up with the name, because they might have assigned a very specific reading (occasionally made up – this is common with song lyrics as well) to a kanji or a string of kanji characters, and unless they provided the furigana, sometimes even a native Japanese speaker wouldn’t know for sure how it should read; they know the meaning, just not the exact pronunciation.

If you’re confused, don’t feel bad, because this is complicated and I’ve seen votes in Japanese groups about how people think a particular name in Kanji should be pronounced with wildly differing results).

In the case of Sanyasou, it is a well established and generally understood combination so the reading should be standard unless otherwise specified, the hiragana provided on the official website confirms this.

I always go by the kana provided on official websites, that way I can be confident in knowing I’m right. If it’s not provided, I take a very careful educated guess (cross referencing other Japanese sites and checking for local landmarks for clues), but I always remain doubtful until I know for sure, and will make a note. When I realise I’m wrong later I go and change everything 🤣

**End your boredom here, maybe**

I find it fascinating how different the same ink can look on these papers, and the way they differ is not always what you’d expect from having seen previous swatches, clockwise from top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic

I don’t call my posts “reviews” because I don’t really have anything to say about them, apart from the waffle at the beginning that has nothing to do with the properties of the inks. I just like making swatches 😁

Nihombashi Akane

Maruzen releases a special edition Athena ink every year, to coincide with the pen show they host at the Nihombashi branch. Numbers are limited and they often sell out within a couple of hours. What people might not know is, that every year, the previous years special edition inks also get re-released in small numbers, so if you do miss out this time, you can try your luck again next year, or if you’re impatient like me, try to buy one second hand. You might not realise this, but quite a few of my inks are second or even third hand.

*scroll to skip story 🤣*

Knowing both Chinese and Japanese is a huge advantage when your hobby involves hunting down rare/discontinued/limited things from Japan.

Geographically, Taiwan is quite a close neighbour of Japan, and Hong Kong is very close to Taiwan, so often these elusive inks will turn up in one of those places. Knowing the language helps, a lot! I was lucky enough to be awake at 2am and staring at my phone (as you do), when someone in Taiwan decided to put a bunch of Japanese inks up for sale.

I didn’t have the means to pay the seller because she only accepted bank transfer or a local Taiwanese PayPal type thing, but she was kind enough to put them on hold for me while my thick-skinned self reached out to one of the major ink fanatics in Taiwan the next day and asked him for help, as I’d previously bought something from him, I knew reimbursing him would not be an issue. He agreed to pay for everything first without a second’s hesitation, and has been my most “dangerous” fountain pen friend ever since. I love the fountain pen community!

*End story, cue eye candy*

I lied, here’s a bit more story, and this is something I’ve come up with myself so is not necessarily correct, so please don’t quote me:

As much as I love Sailor inks, I always find their reds a bit…samey. I don’t know if it is because that red is such a symbolic, sacred colour, that perhaps the ink blenders at Sailor feel it shouldn’t/needn’t be touched, or that their innate patriotism steer them toward this end result. Look at the following picture:

Maybe I’ve just been very “lucky” and managed to pick all the dupes. There are subtle differences but only a few standouts. Everytime I get a Sailor red I’m 90% certain it would be a Japan red. Now someone please set me straight, tell me my theory is completely wrong and unjustified, because I would love to know the real reason behind this (whether this is a thing or not).

Now onto the REAL ink I’m ongoing to show you. As usual, clockwise from top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic:

See why this red is so highly regarded? Bonus points for spotting it on the page with all the swatches 😝

Now for the close-ups:

I needed this so much I bought a half used bottle:

Who’s looking forward to next March?

Shizuoka Orange

In my previous post I talked about getting a “hideous” ink for Macchiato Man, which he still hasn’t used. To redeem myself, the next time I went to Japan, I got him something he actually liked.

The problem was I also liked this ink and wanted it for myself, but the shop only allows one bottle of each colour per person, and they didn’t have the full range in stock. So I walked half an hour in the Japanese summer to another branch of Bungukan Kobayashi:

Except it didn’t take half an hour. I’m one of those people that will glance at a map and go “yup, in that general direction we go” and not look at the map again for twenty minutes, you can guess the rest.

So, a bus ride back to the train station, lunch, and two bus rides (another story) later I made it to the biggest branch of Bungukan Kobayashi 💪💪and picked up the other colours I needed plus another bottle of this deliciousness:

(Clockwise from top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic)

Closer look at each:

Yes, this ink sheens as much as the pictures show, the sheen is so intense it would actually look purple if left in a pen for long enough.

I love just about every ink Kobabun has to offer and will definitely be putting the rest of the collection on here 🙂

Matsushima Blue

The shop “Office Vendor“, aka Bungu no Mori (文具の杜 – stationery forest, not to be confused with the Bungu no Mori near Osaka) in Sendai, Japan has a range of highly sought after inks called “Mori no Shiki” (杜の四季 – Four seasons of the forest). They are very difficult to come by as they are no longer sold online and have to be purchased in person, and each time the store restocks, it is only a selection of the entirely range, in small batches that often sell out within the day. To buy these you probably need to be in Sendai for a good while and keep a close eye on the shop news, and camp out 😬

The fountain pen community is full of awesome people, I have managed to get my paws on a few of these through a very generous friend who is also heavily into inks, whom I’ve yet to meet in person!

The labels in this range are all very pretty and definitely add to the overall desirability of these inks.

Below are swatches, clockwise from top left, on: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic.

Closer look:

I will be doing the other colours I have in the future, so stay tuned 🙂

Ink Studio Ichou (custom)

So I thought I would start off with my own custom Sailor ink because I’m mean like that 😬

I was lucky enough to be in Tokyo earlier this year for an Ink Studio event that took place on my last day in Japan! Not wanting to miss out, I got out of bed super early to line up and was the first one there, being an hour and a half early…other people didn’t start showing up till about 15 minutes before the shop opened 😅

After showing him a picture of a colour I wanted Mr. Ishimaru to make,

he got straight into it and very soon came back with something for me to test. A couple of minor tweaks later I ended up loving the colour he came up with, which wasn’t quite the same as the picture but it was right up my alley and I was very happy with how wet and sheeny the resulting ink was!

Here are some swatches of my first bottle of custom Sailor ink. Clockwise from the top left: 52g Tomoe River, Midori, Graphilo, Paperholic.

A closer look at each.

My mum was the one who came up with the name “Ichou”, which means gingko…but she didn’t specify whether it was the leaves or the nuts this colour reminded her of 😅.

If you’re heading to Japan and want to try having your own custom ink blended right in front of you by the master Mr. Ishimaru, you can check the calendar over at Sailor events to help you plan your trip. Have fun!