TAG Kyoto kyo-no-oto #15 - usugumo

[namrehsnoom]

TAG Kyoto kyo-no-oto #15 - usugumo

 

TAG is a stationery shop in Kyoto (Japan) that produces some interesting soft watercolour-style inks. With the kyo-no-oto series they produce a line of inks that replicates traditional Japanese dye colours. According to available online info, the manufacturing process of the kyo-no-oto inks follows traditional dying techniques dating back to the Heian era between the years 794 and 1185. The inks come in 40 ml bottles, packaged in luxurious thick paper with a texture that feels like heavy watercolour paper.

 

In this review I take a closer look at usugumo – “whisps of cloud”. The ink’s name is derived from chapter 19 of the classic Japanese “Tale of Genji”, where Hikaru Genji navigates intense grief following the death of his beloved Lady Fujitsubo. This was the poem that Prince Genji spoke: "Those thin wisps of cloud trailing there over the mountains caught in the sunset light seem to wish to match their hue to the sleeves of the bereaved." 

 

Usugumo has a stunningly beautiful colour – a complex, turbulent, mysterious and dynamic cool grey with multiple undertones – blue, green and red – that surface depending on the paper used, lighting conditions, etc. Unfortunately, you will also experience the grief felt by Prince Genji. The ink is nerve-wracking and makes me want to scream with uncontrolled grief and rage. It has bad lubrication, bad flow, and super extreme shading properties. It dries on the nib in a few hours in many of my pens. And I can go on on… And still… I kept searching for the few pens where the ink is manageable, simply because I so much enjoy its beauty on paper.

 

Usugumo is a pale and unsaturated ink with a wide dynamic range. The bad ink flow in many pens doesn’t help: you get extreme variations in contrast between light and dark areas of your writing, which results in too extreme shading. This is especially so with high-quality coated paper, where the ink becomes near unusable for writing. More absorbent paper helps immensely – ink gets sucked out of the nib, and gets absorbed quickly, with not enough time for the harsh shading to develop. I also noticed that the ink flow works better in cheap pens like the Safari. My guess is that these have wider ink channels which helps with the flow.
Instead of writing with a fountain pen, you can also use a dip or brush pens. These apply much more ink to the paper – avoiding the unpleasant behaviour described above. Also, this ink really shines when used in a more artistic context – it looks gorgeous in  ink drawings.

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 the Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. Usugumo has a wide dynamic range, going from a wispy – almost invisible – grey to a moderately saturated blue/green-grey. This wide range translates to extremely harsh shading in most fountain pens. To tame this extreme shading, use of absorbent paper is really a must.

 

The chromatography hints at the inherent complexity of this kyo-no-oto ink: besides the grey base colour, you see glimpses of yellow, green and blue. These multiple hues together create the dynamic complexity and turbulent character of the ink’s colour. This is by no means a simple grey. It subtly shifts in the direction of a blue/green colour without really getting there. Wonderful stuff!

 

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 a Safari M-nib
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Safari
• A small text sample, written with an F-nib TWSBI VAC Mini
• Source of the quote, with a Sailor 1911 with B-stub
• Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari)

Shading gets really extreme with coated high-quality paper. You absolutely need more absorbent paper to get the shading under control. Lubrication is bad across the board. I used the TWSBI for the text sample because it’s one of the few pens that worked fairly well with this ink. 

From the writing samples on the different paper types, you also get a feel for what type of paper works with usugumo. Fortunately for me, I use Paperblanks journals for my daily writing, and that type of paper works quite well with this kyo-no-oto ink. But be warned: this is by no means an easy or forgiving ink – it only works well with some pen/paper combinations. If you don’t enjoy a challenge, usugumo is probably not for you.

 

Below you can find zoomed-in shots of some of the papers used in the test. The Sakae Iroful paper demonstrates the harsh shading really well. Fantasticpaper illustrates the way an absorbent paper can tame the shading.

 

Writing with different nib sizes
The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. Kyo-no-oto usugumo looks too pale in the EF-nib, and seems to work best with cheaper pens like the Safari. With these pens, ink flow is a bit better and you get a touch more saturation, with less aggressive shading as a result. I really like the looks in the Safari with 1.1 nib. If you enjoy strong shading, a wet pen like the Pelikan with F-nib gives enough saturation to make the shading manageable. 

 

Related inks
To compare this wispy cool-grey usugumo 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. The comparison shows the uniqueness of usugumo’s colour – it’s hard to believe that so many different shades of grey can exist.

 

Inkxperiment – skyscrapers
With every review, I try to create an inkxperiment using only the ink I’m working on. These one-ink drawings are a great way to show off the colour-range nuances that are present in the ink. I really enjoy doing them: it’s fun, and a good way to stretch my creativity and drawing skills. 

Grey inks lend themselves well for more abstract expressions. So I decided to keep it simple and opted for a skyscraper theme that emphasizes vertical lines.

 

I started with a piece of HP photo paper and added some grey colour bands to it. I experimented with strips of newspaper that I first wetted with water-diluted ink, and then used as a stamp on the photo paper. These provided a textured background. I then used the side of a plastic card to draw the outline of the skyscrapers. Finally, I filled up the skyscrapers with vertical lines drawn with a fountain pen. The resulting drawing shows quite well what can be achieved with usugumo in an 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.

 

For this computational derivation, I kept to black-and-white to emphasize the skyscraper shapes. I also added a grid to the drawing to enhance its dynamics. The resulting picture works well for me. 

 

Conclusion
I’ve tried a number of kyo-no-oto inks to date and loved them all. But these are by no means easy and forgiving inks. This cool-grey usugumo is a perfect example of the extremes you can get: stunningly beautiful and complex colour with annoyingly bad technical characteristics (bad lubrication, bad flow, … nothing good, really). Not so much a writing ink, but a truly great one for drawing.

Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper

 

Back-side of writing samples on different paper types

 

Doodle – “I need coffee”
While making the inkxperiment drawing, I used a small piece of photo paper for testing purposes. Instead of throwing it away, a few ink spots inspired me to draw a face. Not a pretty one – I have to confess – more like a self-portrait of myself when I get out of bed and am desperate for my first cup of coffee.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

OOOOOH!  

That looks like a lovely color!  And not so light as to be illegible on the page.  

Thanks as usual for the comprehensive review; although Robert Oster Summer Storm (which apparently I have an untried sample of) also looks nice....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

Unfortunately, you will also experience the grief felt by Prince Genji. The ink is nerve-wracking and makes me want to scream with uncontrolled grief and rage. It has bad lubrication, bad flow, and super extreme shading properties. It dries on the nib in a few hours in many of my pens. And I can go on on… And still… I kept searching for the few pens where the ink is manageable, simply because I so much enjoy its beauty on paper.

Well, that about says it all, doesn't it?  Strange how some inks do this to us.

 

Great subject for the drawing - very fitting to the color of the ink.

 

I have a feeling this is an ink one has to experiment to appreciate - I get the impression my monitor isn't doing it justice.

 

Thanks, @namrehsnoom, for another amazing review and wonderful drawings!

[yazeh]

Thank you for such a great, in depth of a such lovely, complex-hued ink @namrehsnoom And sorry it gave you so much grief. The moment I saw the "challenges" I knew this was an art ink. I see a hint of purple in the washes. Funny thing, I'll be posting a review of a similar shaded ink, without the flow issues.  

 

It's surprising how this ink is so contradictory or shall we say high maintenance. It flows well in dry Safari, it writes well with the Pelikan and TWSBI. Which pens it didn't like then?

 

Love the art work, both the stark skyscraper and the more loose and liberated you, before coffee.  It reminds me a bit of Spirou.  

 

Thank you for your exploration and seeing use and beauty in inks that, while not suited for writing, can be used in art. 

[PithyProlix]

Great review, as always!

 

I received this ink a month or two ago, tried it in a couple pens, and, realizing I'd need to experiment a bit - or more - to find the right ink-pen-paper combination, promptly put it aside. It's such a nice color, I think it will be worth the effort.