Kyo-Iro Line Comparison

[visvamitra]

To be honest I don’t know much about the company. Some time ago Algester posted topic about Tag Kyoto branch inks. The bottles and colors presented on their site looked nice so I’ve decided to try some of these inks. The inks are made by or for Takeda Jimuki company and are available in two lines: Kyo No Oto and Kyo-Iro. Kyo no Oto inks are said to be traditional japanese colors that has been used since heian era (roughly 1000 years ago), and expressing a tinges that have been nurtured in long history and profound culture for long time. I was able to get and try all the inks in the series and review them. Basically I share my thougts about each ink in review, so here I'll just post some scans of all the inks together.

Kyo-iro inks are:

1. Cherry Blossom of Keage
   
2. Flaming Red of Fushimi
   
3. Moonlight of Higashiyama
   
4. Soft Snow of Ohara
   
5. Stone Road of Gion
   

All together

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Classic, broad nib

Clairefontaine, Kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Linen paper, Kaweco Classic Sport, broad nib

Oxford, Hero 5028, stub 1,9

CIAK, Sheaffer Balance, EF nib

Water resistance

Packaging

I find Kyonooto inks packaging very elegant and aesthetically pleasing. The bottles are nice and practical although not really good looking. The boxes on the other hand are stunning. Minimalistic yet elegant and well thought. I always throw away boxed but in this case I'm going to keep them.

Price and availability

These inks are well priced if you happen to live in Japan. Sadly shiopping costs and additional fees (taxes) make Kyonooto inks quite pricey for westerners. I've bought all the bottles from Rakuten so price per bottle was around 20-24 $. You can het them an Amazon for 30 $ / bottle. Expensive, I know. Are they worth it? Well, objectively speaking this inks are nice but are in no way technologically advanced inks. Choice is yours to make

Colors

Kyo-iro inks are medium saturated, subtle inks and the colors are rather subdued. To really enjoy them it's advised to use wet and broad nib. To be honest I'm not crazy on any of these colors. Stone Road of Gion is interesting, Cherry Blossom of Keage is not generic pink but rather dirty mauve. Soft Snow of Ohara is pleasing but basically these inks have no panache.

Inks behaviour

Kyo-iro inks like fountain pens and papers and it's mutual friendship. None of them will cause feathering or bleedthrough. Sadly none of them is water resistant so if you need / want water resistance look for other inks. Drying times are reasonable. As for fading - time will tell. I'll put samples on Clairefontaine near the window and update this post in a month or two.

[ENewton]

Thanks for this comparison. I don't paint, but it strikes me how lovely several of these inks would look together in a drawing. (I do think I would swap out the flaming red for the green or gold in the Kyo-no-oto series.)

 

I agree that these inks are too subtle for a dry or extra-fine nib to show them to advantage, but I don't think the nib has to be broad. I've been using Soft Snow of Ohara in my Waterman fine and medium pens, and on good paper, the hue and shading are quite distinctive. I find myself rereading notes quite a bit more often than I would otherwise!

 

I never thought I'd look twice at a pink, but dirty mauve...

[lapis]

Thanks for this very informative and interesting comparison. I'll have to go along with you and say that IMO these are all very pleasant colours, great for artwork but I'll still avoid them because {a} there is nothing there that I could need or love enough for ordinary "writing", and worse off {b} it is (at least for me) much too complicated and expensive to order, ship and get through customs.

[Ileach]

Will be in Japan soon and then get all inks I can find. 40 kgs allowance for checked luggage rocks :-) #frequentflyer

Edited August 22, 2016 by Ileach

[Ghost Plane]

Nothing here is tempting me.

[Barkingpig]

Nothing here is tempting me.

 

Sometimes that is a "good thing."

[namrehsnoom]

Thanks for the comprehensive comparison. I like all of these. Still - I'm glad I went for the Callifolio's instead of these: 1 bottle of kyo-iro = 4 bottles of Callifolio.

[visvamitra]

Good calculation

[Tinjapan]

Thanks Vis for the comparisons and reviews. I really like the one color of this line that I have, The Flaming Red of Fushimi. It is good to see a lot of samples of the other colors. Both this and Aonobi of the other line, the only two of this compnies offerings, remind me in some way of J. Herbin inks. Did they for you too?

[amberleadavis]

Thank you, Vis!!! You are doing a great job.

[KKay]

Great reviews. I love the colors here. However the ink does not seem to have any water resistance sadly. Thanks for pointing that out with photos.

[purringtons]

Stone road of Gion is soooo pretty.. where can I find this in Japan?

[Barkingpig]

TAG Stationery sold this ink on Amazon US, when I first purchased it. I do not know if this is a shop you might be familiar with in Japan, but it was the original source of the ink for the US, until it became available by some retailers.

[purringtons]

@barkingpig ah thank you, i've never head of them before but i just did a quick search and found two TAG stores in tokyo :-)

[fjoly79]

"not technologically advanced inks" - unless they start writing by themselves, which would take out the pleasure of using them I don't see what a technologically advance make a difference...

AS LONG AS IT STAINS, I'M OK WITH IT