Kobe Nagasawa (By Sailor) #37 – Minatojima Island Blue

[crahptacular]

Kobe Nagasawa (by Sailor) #37 – Minatojima Island Blue

 

Before doing this review, this ink was one of my preferred blues, but I didn't really notice some of its complexities, so I was pretty surprised when I saw this ink interact with water. Apparently, there is more to this ink than meets the eye. On my paper towel where I dried my brushes (aka poor excuse for chromatography), I could clearly see that the ink separates into red, blue, and green components. On paper, the red component penetrates first while the blue comes off the top, resulting in all the purple showing up in the wash. In person, there's a lot more purple in the doodle than what either the photo or the scan shows in my review, but I can't seem to find a way to capture it in an image. What's more, the ink has two different types of sheen when pooled, although it's a difficult to get them both to show up. In any case, these properties elevated the ink from "attractive" to "attractive and exciting" for me. Clearly I need to buy more of the saturated blues from the Kobe line, if 37 and 51 are any indication!

 

This ink is a well-saturated deep blue. It has excellent flow which results in a consistent, solid line without much shading. Performance is flawless in my experience, with good lubrication and no misbehavior. It also has a fair amount of sheen. I think this blue is supposed to represent the color of the water around Port Island, the artificial island where Minatojima is located. The writing color is pretty straightforward, and is a good representation of a blue sea under a bright sky. After seeing the wash, however, I think of this ink as the water at sunset, reflecting a darkening pink sky (although you don’t see that part of the ink when writing…). At the end of the day, between its performance and appearance, this is one of my go-to inks when I want a strong, deep blue without toeing the blurple line.

 

Lubrication: High

Shading: Low

Sheen: Moderate-High (some red sheen visible in regular writing, and slight green sheen when heavily pooled)

Water Resistance: Moderate (leaves a legible purple line; the spot in the middle where it looks like the line is completely gone is because I rubbed too hard and broke the surface of the paper)

Other notes: During my doodling I had this pen sitting uncapped on the table for over almost ten minutes without having the nib dry out. I don’t really have a standard to measure this against, but it seemed impressive to me.

 

The following sample was done with a Sailor Pro Gear (21k HMF) on Tomoe River (52gsm, white, loose-leaf). Doodle was done with a Size 3/0 mop and size 0 liner brush in addition to the pen. Flex writing was done with a Leonardt Principal dip nib.

 

Bad Scanner Disclaimer: Scan was a bit of a disaster on this. In the writing, the words that appear purple are due to sheen; I couldn't correct it without messing up everything else. (On the other hand, in the doodle, the parts that are purple are actually purple because of the wash. In fact, the wash should look even more purple than that.) The darkest shades of blue did not show up in the scan. Comparison shots are bad in the scan, but it does show the combination of red and green sheen, which is accurate. Photo is generally more accurate for the actual color of the ink, especially for the comparisons. The big smear in the photo is very accurate on my monitor.

 

Scan:

 

Photo:

 

Comparison inks from left to right (big smear is the featured ink):

Diamine Imperial Blue, Diamine Majestic Blue, Iroshizuku Kon-Peki, Sailor Souten, PenBBS #217 Iris Tectorum Maxim

 

Maruman Mnemosyne:

 

Tsubame Fool’s University:

 

Kokuya Campus:

 

[visvamitra]

Stunning presentation

[NicolausPiscator]

Wow! Incredible review, thank you!

[Tas]

Sublime review !

Thank you.

[UDog]

You should frame your review. Love that color, too.

[DrDebG]

Excellent review! I had no idea that this ink was that nice. I will have to order a bottle soon.

[MarcinEck]

What a nice review! What a amazing drawing!

And nice colour indeed

Thanks for sharing

[catalyst]

Wow this is Amazing, Thanks a lot for doing this. Now I have to get a sample.

[pararis]

I went through a lot of blues before deciding on this as my blue ink. Periodic reassessments always bring me back to the same place. This is what blue is supposed to be for me. And my experience mirrors the reviewer's. It's perfectly saturated, wet, perfectly behaved and very complex.

 

Not sure what all the superfluous stuff is about; where I buy it's simply called Kobe 37 Harbour Island Blue. It's an expensive ink, but it's also not in the Bung Box league in that regard. This seems to be an overlooked ink. Perhaps after this review it will get the attention it deserves.

[amberleadavis]

Wow, it worked much better for you and your illustration is amazing. Thank you.

[crahptacular]

I went through a lot of blues before deciding on this as my blue ink. Periodic reassessments always bring me back to the same place. This is what blue is supposed to be for me. And my experience mirrors the reviewer's. It's perfectly saturated, wet, perfectly behaved and very complex.

 

Not sure what all the superfluous stuff is about; where I buy it's simply called Kobe 37 Harbour Island Blue. It's an expensive ink, but it's also not in the Bung Box league in that regard. This seems to be an overlooked ink. Perhaps after this review it will get the attention it deserves.

 

The ink bottle is labeled "港島アイランド ブルー" which translates directly to "Minatojima Airando Buruu (Island Blue)". I've seen different vendors with different translations for these ink names, and I don't know if one set of names is an "official" translation or not, but I simply went by the label the manufacturer put on the bottle, which I feel is a reasonable place to look for the ink's name

[Quadratus]

Very nice and imaginative review- thank you!

This is definitely one of my favourite blue inks, with only the Iroshizuku “Asa Gao” as a rival. There is a rich texture and shading to this ink that is quite exceptional. What a pity it is so hard to find. Happily, I was in Tokyo earlier this year on a business trip and managed to get 4 bottles of this fantastic colour.

Fortunately, you can now get these Kobe inks on Ebay, so there will always be a supplier.