Sailor Manyo - ukikusa

[namrehsnoom]

Sailor Manyo - ukikusa

 

The origins of Sailor date from 1911 when Mr. Sakata and his brother founded the “Sakata Manufactory” to produce solid gold nibs. You can explore their history at https://en.sailor.co.jp/company/our-history . These guys have been around for a long time, so it comes as no surprise that they are well-known in stationery land. Over the years, Sailor has literally brought hundreds of inks to market, and I’m now exploring some of them.

 

Sailor Manyo’s ink range is named for “manyosyu”, the “Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves”, which is Japan’s oldest and most revered anthology of poetry. It comprises over 4000 poems written over a period of 400 years by people from all walks of life, from emperors to farmers. Some 1500 poems are related to flowers, which are so important in Japanese culture. Sailor therefore decided to name the Manyo inks after flowers mentioned in this epic, centuries-spanning collection of poems.

 

Sailor Manyo ukikusa is a lively vibrant spring-green ink that is slightly yellow-leaning. Young and fresh. Like a child playing in the garden in late spring, when everything is full of life. This surely is a happy colour. Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Lovely!

 

Ukikusa works well with all types of paper. White and cream. Premium and lower-quality. This ink can handle them all. It’s not perfect though. I found it a bit too under-saturated and low-lubricated when using it in my dry-writing Lamy Safari. This ink works best when coupled with a wet writer. And I prefer it with finer nibs, that concentrate the ink a bit, upping the saturation and increasing the aesthetics. A solid ink.

The ink comes in a 50ml bottle, with a picture on it that refers to the flower/plant that it gets its inspiration from. The bottles are both solid and practical, making it easy to fill up your pen.

To illustrate the colour span of this spring-green beauty, I did a swab on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper, where I really saturated portions of the paper with ink. Ukikusa has a medium colour span, without too much difference between the light and darker saturated parts. With this kind of contrast range, you get medium levels of soft and pleasant-looking shading. Nothing too harsh, and it adds an extra layer of elegance to your writing. 

 

On the smudge test – rubbing text with a moist Q-tip cotton swab – the ink shows only a tiny amount of smearing. The ink dries fairly quick in the 10-20 second range, even on smooth Japanese paper. Water resistance is just not there – the dyes detach easily from the paper, leaving behind some faint blue-ish looking smudges. The chromatography emphasizes the softness and youthful character of this ink.

 

I’ve tested the ink on a wide variety of paper – from crappy Moleskine to high-end Tomoe River. On each scrap 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 a Lamy Safari M-nib fountain pen
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Safari
• A small text sample, written with a Tom’s Studio pen with F-nib
• Source of the quote, written with an Esterbrook Estie with journaler nib
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari)

The multi-paper writing test shows that Sailor Manyo ukikusa works well with most types of paper.  It also handles lower quality paper really well. There is a tiny amount of feathering, and some bleed-through, but the text looks great. Just don’t expect to be able to write on both sides of the page. Overall, a technically solid ink.

 

I used photos for the writing samples above to get the most accurate results. For completeness, I also add a scan of some writing samples. The scan is fairly accurate, except for the title texts that were written with a dry B-nib Safari – here the contrast is definitely off. The scan also brings some hardness to the colour, that looks much softer in real life.

 

Below you’ll find some zoomed-in parts of writing samples. This Sailor Manyo ink looks really consistent across the whole range of writing papers. Good contrast. Consistent colour. Well balanced shading.

 

Writing with different nib sizes
The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing (written on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper). All samples were written with a Lamy Safari. I also added a couple of visiting pens that are wetter writers: a  Tom’s Studio pen with F-nib, a Pelikan M205 with M cursive-italic, and an Esterbrook Estie with a journaler nib by Gena Salorino. The ink looks great in all nib sizes, but writes most smoothly and with good lubrication when using wetter pens.

 

Related inks
To compare Sailor ukikusa 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. As you can see, the ink has a rather unique character, and stands out from its other yellow-green cousins. But all of these inks look lovely, and are guaranteed to bring some joy to your day.

 

Inkxperiment – science matters: Darwin
As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. This is a fun and creative endeavour that’s always good for a couple of hours tinkering around with the ink. I simply love experimenting with inks to see how they behave in a more artistic context. 

While browsing on Wikipedia, I came across an article on cross-writing. This is a writing technique where you write on the page both horizontally and vertically. This was done in the early days of the postal system in the 19th century to save on expensive postage charges, as well as to save paper. Unexpectedly, it’s still fairly easy to read the lines. And it is extremely cool to look at!

So there is the inspiration for my drawing. For the text, I decided to pay homage to some great scientists. For this occasion, I selected Charles Darwin with his “On the Origin of Species”, that laid the groundwork for our understanding of the way life – as well as homo sapiens – evolved over the many millions of years that it has been present on our planet. The subject also fits well with the yellow-green colour of ukikusa.

 

I started with an A4 piece of HP photo paper, drawing the green stalk and the light-green background. I then used a fine-nibbed pen and copied the text from Darwin’s work, employing the cross-writing technique. To finish the drawing I added some splatters of ink, and stamped in some square motifs. The final drawing illustrates what can be achieved with this Sailor Manyo ink in a more artistic setting.

 

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 was quite satisfied with the original drawing, so I only aged it up a bit. First I enhanced the contrast, and then I applied an old-paper filter to get that aged look. With this minor manipulation, the drawing looks more like an old piece of parchment, maybe a page from Darwin’s original manuscript. 

 

Conclusion
Sailor Manyo ukikusa is a really good-looking ink. It’s fresh and young, with well-balanced aesthetics across the board. A fine ink to write with (just don’t use dry writers). And with a colour full of life, guaranteed to bring a bit of joy to your day.

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

 

Backside of writing samples on different paper types

 

 

[LizEF]

Love me some bright, happy greens!   This one's a little more muted, but still lovely.  And look at that shading on Iroful!!

 

Very cool drawing, and love that it morphed nicely into a murky green!   Two greens for the price of one!

 

Thanks, @namrehsnoom, for another wonderful review!

[yazeh]

Thanks for such a detailed and passionate review @namrehsnoom.

The colour reminds me of bright moss, one of my favorite plants. Apparently, the name refers to Spirodela polyrhiza, or Greater duckweed, or more generally, floating weed, and the ephemeral nature of life. It ties nicely with your artwork and the chosen text. 

How our lives have changed since the 19th century, when we communicated through letters, paper, and ink, and now we write mostly in digital format, commenting on said pen, ink, and paper.

 

 

 

[InesF]

Thank you, @namrehsnoom, for one more of your always so comprehensive ink reviews! I like the effort you put into the comparisons, I like the ink colour and I like the experiment with cross-writing! Well done! 

 

Not so long ago I got a sample of this ink. You motivated me to use it soon in a Monthly Challenge.  

[InesF]

19 hours ago, yazeh said:

[...] How our lives have changed since the 19th century, when we communicated through letters, paper, and ink, and now we write mostly in digital format, commenting on said pen, ink, and paper.

What? Halt. Wait! It is no longer the 19^th century? Why am I still writing letters with pen and ink, why build my own covers, use wax seals and order a horse-mounted mailman ...? Hmm, OK, not the mailman, but everything else.   

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, InesF said:

What? Halt. Wait! It is no longer the 19^th century? Why am I still writing letters with pen and ink, why build my own covers, use wax seals and order a horse-mounted mailman ...? Hmm, OK, not the mailman, but everything else.   

 When I think of it, 19th century might be fun for a short visit, between wars, but when I think of it, no women's rights, vaccines, hygiene, fountain pens, illiteracy, and no toilet paper.

[InesF]

20 hours ago, yazeh said:

[...] and no toilet paper.

😱 

(That's the reason, nobody likes to live in the past ... )

[SashK]

This one is so lovely, and I use it so rarely, so thank you very much for the reminder! 

 

And what an excellent review as always, so complete in every way.