Sailor Hougado Pen Gallery Boochan Blue

[white_lotus]

For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them.

The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book.

Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor.

Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice.

Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel.

Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna.

The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections.

Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement.

The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book.

Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel.

The ink appears to be of single dye, not water resistant; and the flow here is a bit less than other Sailor inks, not to be point of being dry or anything but just not as wet. My Mina with a fine nib, that's usually quite wet, wrote with a nice fine line with this ink. It was somewhat shady, but not in a dramatic way. In the very wet medium-nibbed Mina we got more dramatic shading. The color probably isn't very exciting for many people as the color when dry is closer to Noodler's Monkey Hanger, Sailor KN Porpita porpita, and the like. This is not a deep, dramatic blue. But I still find it charming and a nice change. It's closer to the color of the sky as it nears the horizon. Even with the fine nib there is red sheen in the loops and punctuation of the letters, very distinct.

 

This ink is a good deal more expensive than other Sailor bespoke inks, but not quite to the Bungbox level. Only available in Japan, so some sleuthing and persistence necessary to get a bottle. In gylyf's review, he states that this ink is somewhat close to Sailor Kobe #17 Shioya Blue, which will be a cheaper, more readily available alternative.

Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel), Edison Mina (M-steel)

Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory.

Camera: iPhone 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gylyf]

My favorite Sailor blue ink! It replaced Sky High as my fave because it's more of a true blue than Sky High. I get a lot of sheen, but I usually use this ink in wetter, broader nibs.

[white_lotus]

Most of the papers I use don't sheen as they're too absorbent. But on TR this ink sheens without effort even in a fine nib.

[amberleadavis]

OH wow! Thank you for sharing. If you send a written sample with these inks, I'll add them to the next fade test.

[mongrelnomad]

I absolutely adore this ink. Bright and vibrant, but still immensely usable, it sheens like crazy even with EF nibs on Tamoe River paper...

[Patrick L]

Hi white_lotus,

Thanks for your reviews. Do you intend to review the redshirt ink ?

All the best

Patrick

[Mulrich]

Looks like the ink is a little water resistant. There's some movement but the underlying text looks very readable.

[inkstainedruth]

This one looks nice! I was about to ask about how it compared to Sky High, but gylyf anticipated the question. Thanks to both white_lotus and gylyf. And well, not....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth