TACCIA Ukiyo-e Hokusai koiai

[namrehsnoom]

TACCIA Ukiyo-e Hokusai koiai

 

TACCIA is a Japanese stationery company, that is part of the Nakabayashi group. They offer high-quality fountain pens, inks, pen-rolls, notebooks, etc. More specifically, TACCIA produce a line of inks, inspired by the unique look of Ukiyo-e paintings from Japan’s Edo period (17th century). Ukiyo-e paintings are woodblock prints where the work of an artist is carved into wood by woodworkers and pressed onto paper by printers. This allows the production of multiple prints of an artwork with some different colours as well.

 

In this review, the spotlight is on koiai, a dark indigo blue with a heavy reddish-purple sheen. The colour is inspired by the blue tones in the world-famous painting “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”, painted by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). It is the best-known painting in his “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series. The breathtaking composition of this woodblock print ensures its reputation as an icon of world art. Hokusai cleverly played with perspective to make Japan’s grandest mountain appear as a small triangular mound within the hollow of the cresting wave.

 

Koiai is a wet and saturated ink, that can appear very dark in writing. It’s not a blue-black though, but a deep dark blue that is moving a bit towards teal territory - without actually getting there. This is an ink that I have mixed feelings about. In wet pens & fine nibs, the ink is too saturated for my taste, and the resulting very dark blue shade doesn’t do much for me. But use this ink with dry pens and/or stub nibs, and it truly blossoms, showing a wonderful indigo blue. You definitely need to hunt for the right pen/nib combination, but this extra bit of work is totally worth it. Koiai is also an ink with a fabulous reddish-purple sheen, that shows on many types of paper. Lovely! 

 

The ink comes in a 40 ml bottle, that is packaged in a beautiful box showing the corresponding Ukiyo-e painting. Lovely packaging for an excellent ink.

 

To show you the impact of saturation on the ink’s look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of a strip of 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. Koiai has a fairly narrow colour span, quickly moving from a stunning indigo-blue to a very saturated dark blue. Not a lot of shading in this ink, but instead you get lots of sheen in the saturated parts of the letter forms. This ink is a true sheening monster! This TACCIA ink works wonderfully well with my Edison Collier Nighthawk 1.1 stub – a beautiful indigo-blue, loads of sheen, and the pen’s colour matches the ink perfectly. I love it when all these details combine together for a wonderful experience… writer’s heaven!

 

The ink’s chromatography shows a complex mix of dyes, with grey, purple, teal and sky-blue components in the mix. From the bottom part of the chroma you can deduce that all colour will disappear from the page when the ink comes into contact with water, leaving only a grey ghost of your writing. This is confirmed in the water test – colour washes away, with a grey-blue residue clinging to the paper, that remains quite readable. By no means a water-proof ink, but one that can survive a small accident.

 

I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On every small band of paper I show you:

• An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip
• 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation
• An ink scribble made with an M-nib Lamy Safari
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari
• A small text sample, written with the M-nib Safari
• Source of the quote, written with an Edison Collier 1.1 stub
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari)

Koiai looks good on both pure white and yellow-cream paper. The ink handles crappy paper well: on Moleskine I saw almost zero feathering, and even see-through and bleed-through are minimal. Drying time are quite long (15-25 seconds) on hard-surface paper, but on more absorbent paper the ink tends to dry almost immediately. This means you can use koiai as an office ink – I’ve used it in my Kaweco Liliput EDC pens with EF nib, and it worked perfectly on the lousy copy paper at work.

 

I’ve also added a photo to give you another view on the ink. Scanned images and photos often capture different aspects of the ink’s colour & contrast. That’s why I present them both. In this case, the photo shows the ink a bit too dark, while the scans come closest to what my eyes can see.

 

Writing with different nib sizes
The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. The top lines are written with my dry-writing Lamy Safari test pens and show a nice dark blue. The ink starts to blossom when you reach the broader nib sizes (B and stub-nib). With my Lamy Dialog 3 – a wet writer with M-nib – the ink gets too saturated for my taste and loses a lot of its appeal. Koiai provides low-to-medium shading. What the scan totally fails to capture is the tremendous amount of sheen – this has to be seen to believe.

 

Related inks
To compare koiai with related inks, I use my nine-grid format with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. There are quite a number of similar-looking inks in my collection, so colourwise this koiai is not a must have. But that sheen… totally makes it worth it to own a bottle of this TACCIA brew.

 

Inkxperiment – Romeo and Juliet
With every review, I try to create a drawing using only the ink I am reviewing. These small one-ink pieces are an excellent way to show the colour-range nuances that are hidden within the ink. And every inkxperiment provides me with a couple of fun hours of quality time. Inspiration for this inkxperiment comes from the “Wyrd Sisters” – a Terry Pratchett novel with lots of references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and King Lear. But also, a love story between the young witch Magrat and the King’s Fool – one that made me think of Romeo and Juliet. The inkxperiment expresses Romeo’s desperation while trying to reach his Juliet.

 

For this drawing, I started with an A4 piece of 300 gsm watercolour paper. I divided the paper in square grids and used the age-old potato stamp (known from kindergarten times) to print a background of squares using different water/ink ratios. I then used a plastic card to add labyrinth lines to the drawing, and with a glass dip pen added Romeo and Juliet. Technically a really simple drawing, but I like the end result that gives you a good idea of what can be achieved with koiai as a drawing ink.

 

Inkxpired – computational art
I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper.

I made a square cut-out of the inkxperiment drawing and used a metallic filter to convert the drawing to black & white. Looks great on a 75x75cm canvas poster against a white-painted wall.

 

Conclusion
TACCIA Ukiyo-e Hokusai koiai is a dark indigo-blue ink with oodles of sheen. Not an ink for a wet writer though, because it tends to oversaturate. But combine it with a stub-nib in a dry pen and you will be in writer’s heaven! This is also a wonderful ink to draw with – I truly enjoyed experimenting with it. Not the best TACCIA ink, but certainly worth a try.

Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib

 

Back-side of writing samples on different paper types
 

 

[LizEF]

Thank you, @namrehsnoom!   This is a color that really appeals to me, and yet once I try it, it's rare that I like the ink well enough to buy a bottle - and yet, I keep trying.   So, on the list it goes.  One year, I'll get a sample.  It's very interesting to me how different it looks on different papers - more so than most inks (as far as I can recall).  That would make it interesting to find my ideal paper for it.

 

(Before reading the full text) Hmm.  Is it me, or did Romeo lose his head!?   I can't decide which version I like better - love all those blues, but the computational version is very intriguing.

 

Well done, as always!  A visual treat.

[lapis]

I see that you're really into this brand. Wonderful inks. Tremendous review. The "blue" is great enough (how banal of me) but it's the heaviness of the red sheen which knocks me out.

[yazeh]

Excellent review as usual.

I have to say this is the type of colour that leaves me indifferent now, it's like an ex, that you think that you like. but when you're with, you know why you're not together

 

[Lithium466]

Fantastic review as always! Thank you!

I'm not a dark blue type of person usually but that ink...it's telling be to buy it!

I see it paired with my newly bought Lamy Persona.

[Uncial]

Nice colour. Taccia have quite a few really good inks at the moment. I'm really enjoying Wheat Ear.

[mizgeorge]

Wonderful review as always - thank you @namrehsnoom for such a treat - I particularly like the art (in both forms) this time.

 

I'm a big fan of Taccia inks, but this one is just too saturated and sheeny for me. This:

 

18 hours ago, yazeh said:

this is the type of colour that leaves me indifferent now, it's like an ex, that you think that you like. but when you're with, you know why you're not together

summed it up perfectly. 

 

 

[rudyhou]

👍 A nice deep blue, fits as daily formal blue. I like the fact that it has a hint of turquoise to the color hue.  

[fireant]

Thank you for such a fantastic review. I like this color quite a bit.

[inkstainedruth]

@namrehsnoomThanks as usual for the very comprehensive review!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Anne-Sophie]

Thank you for the great comprehensive review!

 

The color reminds me of Herbin Vert de Gris. 

[Bolsonink]

I truly enjoyed this review and just add the ink to the shopping cart a month ago. Now, once I really started using it, is giving me headaches: smearing / smudging. I tried it all: Tomoe, Rhodia, Hahnemuhle… weeks a later, if I accidentally touch the paper… inky fingers! What is your experience in this regards? @namrehsnoom

Edited March 12, 2023 by Bolsonink

[namrehsnoom]

On 3/12/2023 at 3:09 PM, Bolsonink said:

I truly enjoyed this review and just add the ink to the shopping cart a month ago. Now, once I really started using it, is giving me headaches: smearing / smudging. I tried it all: Tomoe, Rhodia, Hahnemuhle… weeks a later, if I accidentally touch the paper… inky fingers! What is your experience in this regards? @namrehsnoom

I just did the test with Rhodia / Tomoe River and Paperblanks paper, with dry times of 1 / 10 / 30 minutes. My experiences (beware - not scientific tests):

• rubbed with finger : after 1 minute: no smudging with Rhodia / Paperblanks, a tiny bit with Tome River. For the 10/30 minute test: no smudging
• licked my finger, and then dried it on my pants: same behavior as above
• licked a cotton swab : this keeps moisture, and I get smudging all over the place, even after 30 minutes.

For me, under normal use: no problem at all. But if there is some moisture on your hands, or maybe if you live in a climate with high humidity: it will keep smudging. 

 

I will think this over. If I can find a useful way to incorporate "smudging info" into my ink review format, I will certainly add this type of information. 

[Bolsonink]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:45 PM, namrehsnoom said:

I just did the test with Rhodia / Tomoe River and Paperblanks paper, with dry times of 1 / 10 / 30 minutes. My experiences (beware - not scientific tests):

• rubbed with finger : after 1 minute: no smudging with Rhodia / Paperblanks, a tiny bit with Tome River. For the 10/30 minute test: no smudging
• licked my finger, and then dried it on my pants: same behavior as above
• licked a cotton swab : this keeps moisture, and I get smudging all over the place, even after 30 minutes.

For me, under normal use: no problem at all. But if there is some moisture on your hands, or maybe if you live in a climate with high humidity: it will keep smudging. 

 

I will think this over. If I can find a useful way to incorporate "smudging info" into my ink review format, I will certainly add this type of information. 

Thank you for your comments. I regularly check humidity and it is around 50-55% indoors and I think my hands might be sweating at times. Not a lot, but enough for smudging .

 

it is a bit of a nuisance 😐 

 

let me stress again how much I enjoyed your reviews. I am converted to Taccia Ukiyo-e line, but Koiai is giving me a hard time. 
 

I am looking forward to your future reviews. 

[mouse2cat]

I really enjoy your reviews and also the bit of history at the top. But I wanted to add a little history correction. 

 

Hokusai was not a painter he was a printmaker. The great wave was a series of carved wood blocks that were then inked and printed on paper. All of the Japanese ukio-e pieces are woodblock prints and not paintings. This is why you will find this piece in multiple museums.

 

I'm a printmaking professor so I had to chime in. I actually teach this technique to college students. 

[manolo]

impressive review, a piece of art.

[txomsy]

On 3/16/2023 at 9:45 PM, namrehsnoom said:

I just did the test with Rhodia / Tomoe River and Paperblanks paper, with dry times of 1 / 10 / 30 minutes. My experiences (beware - not scientific tests):

• rubbed with finger : after 1 minute: no smudging with Rhodia / Paperblanks, a tiny bit with Tome River. For the 10/30 minute test: no smudging
• licked my finger, and then dried it on my pants: same behavior as above
• licked a cotton swab : this keeps moisture, and I get smudging all over the place, even after 30 minutes.

For me, under normal use: no problem at all. But if there is some moisture on your hands, or maybe if you live in a climate with high humidity: it will keep smudging. 

 

I will think this over. If I can find a useful way to incorporate "smudging info" into my ink review format, I will certainly add this type of information. 

Sorry, but... is it minutes or seconds? Half an hour to dry seems to me like rather too much.

[Karmachanic]

3 hours ago, txomsy said:

Half an hour to dry seems to me like rather too much.

 

I recall reading of ink that smudges after 24hrs.  Private Reserve and Noodlers perhaps.

[SashK]

Grabbed this when it first made it to US market, and still think of it as a top BB ink. Taccia makes really great inks, up there with Sailor, though they make far fewer lines.