The nice people from Everything Calligraphy sent over a few samples of their new line of inks from Kyoto, Japan. There are Kyo-Iro and Kyo No Oto Inks. I’m eager to review them because all the Japanese inks I’ve tried so far have been excellent. I’m curious to see how these inks perform. Kyo-Iro inks are named after famous places in Kyoto Japan. It may be a bit hard to distinguish the colors on the bottle because for Kyo-Iro inks, the names are printed in Japanese characters. I’ll dive right in and review one of the colors that really got my attention. This one’s called Moonlight of Higashiyama.
I like that the packaging of Kyo-Iro inks are so reminiscent of what makes Japanese aesthetics so pleasing. It’s minimalist, simple, elegant, and functional. I love the print on the box and the labels on the bottle. Each bottle holds 40ml of ink, and the opening is convenient to use, no matter what the pen size is.
Moonlight of Higashiyama is an earthy brown color that leans more towards orange or terracotta. When wet, the yellow component of the ink is more obvious, but it gets a lot darker as it dries. The color reminds me of autumn leaves, or caramel. It’s warm and pleasant, and really gorgeous especially on cream-colored paper. I like that it has subtle shading that shows different hues from light terracotta orange to dark brown, the color of burnt brown sugar. It’s saturated enough for daily writing, it’s very comfortable to read. The flow of this ink is also quite good. It’s a touch above moderate flow, and my pen just glides on paper when using it. The drying time is relatively fast at about 15 seconds using a medium nib on Tomoe River paper. It’s not water resistant. So don’t leave your journal out in the rain ;-). Here are a few close ups of the writing sample.
Overall, it’s an eye-catching color. I enjoy using it in journal entries. Kyo-Iro inks and I are off to a great start, it seems. 🙂
Kyoto inks are available at Everything Calligraphy.
Here’s a roundup of all the Kyoto Inks I have reviewed:
The Serial Doodler 
I had a very different experience with mine. I found this to be an extremely dry ink with not much lubrication (so it felt rough and dry). Even in wet pens. Beautiful colour all the same. If you get it wet enough it has a tiny amount of silver sheen on Tomoe River paper.
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Oh, is that so? I have only tried it with Sailor Sapporo. Maybe i’ll try it with my other pens and see if it flows the same.
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I also love Japanese packaging aesthetics and paper/art products. Quick question: have you run a paint brush over the inks? I like water soluble inks for sketching because the color can bleed into fill areas. Would you consider including some shapes and scribbles with water brushesd or smeared over it? Just curious. Love the colors of the 2 Kyo-Iro inks so far. I use a Sailor and Visconti, but use Lamy’s for drawing.
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sure, i’ll try to create a separate post for washes when I find time, hopefully next week. 🙂
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