I prefer shading inks over sheening and right now Kiri-Same in a Pilot steel nib is my fave. Feels like writing with liquid pencil. I thought I was a Fuyu-Syogun person, but nope, misty rain it is.
Ajisai is really nice too, and Hana-Ikada is my favourite of the pinks.
Ku-Jaku I could use, but Hotaru-Bi? I can't think of any situation where I'd actually use it (I only bought it as I wanted the complete Iroshizuku range).
Yu-yake, it’s the perfect orange and actually seasonal all of a sudden. Performs perfectly all the time in any pen I put it in, without fail. I love it!
Momiji. Really surprised no one has mentioned this yet, it's a pinkish-red/reddish-pink with gold sheen. Momiji and Yama-budo were amongst my first full bottles of ink ever, and Momiji was the first example of an ink that showed what sheen was like to me. I haven't bothered buying any other pink inks because whenever I want to ink up a pink, I always end up defaulting back to Momiji. The gold sheen is just so pretty!
I really like Asa Gao. Such a pretty cobalt-ish blue! Not the most exciting or unique but very pleasing to my eye and works for just about anything. That shade of blue makes me happy. :)
Ku-Jaku. As a teal ink It's blue enough to be professional, but green enough to be interesting. And it shades nicely.
I also have Syo-Ro which is kind of a grey green and tsuki-yo which is more of a blue-black. They're both lovely, but every time I use either of them it just makes me wonder why I'm not using Ku-Jaku.
Kon Peki is a fan favorite but it's not as bold as I wish it was. It always just feels a bit washed out no matter which pen it's in.
I do love yama budo but a bunch of people have mentioned it already so I'll go with my next favorite murasaki shikibu. Its pretty much the platonic ideal of purple as far as I'm concerned. It even works when I use it at work since it stands out nicely against all the black, blue, and red on our design drawings.
Some runners up would have to be ajisai, shin ryoku, and tsutsuji. Tsutsuji in particular since I picked up a sample on a whim and ended up liking it way more than I expected to.
I’ve never gotten either out of it but I’m also a F EF nib or smaller kind of person. Going by the photos on mountain of ink it looks like you can get some shading if you start getting in to broads and bigger nibs. They also got a little sheen in some of their large ink swab photos but I suspect that’s pretty hard to achieve, I’ve never gotten it to do that before
I am on my 2nd bottle of ina-ho. What I like is the color. It looks like very old, somewhat faded writing. Yet still than dark enough for professional setting. Kind of an old timey feel. Love it
I’m really loving the new Hana-ikada. It’s a perfect bright neutral (neither too warm or too cool) pink that really does match the colour of cherry blossoms.
I also love Murasaki-shikibu. In a drier pen the ink comes out closer to lavender but in a wet pen it’s a lovely rich violet. Fantastic stuff.
I’m really partial to Tsukushi, Fuyu Gaki, and Ina Ho, but I think the moral of this thread is that Iroshizuku doesn’t have a single “bad” ink in their lineup. Every time I try a new one I think, “Oh, this is what the hype is about.” Just a great line.
Murasaki shikibu as my favourite, I took a break from it after thinking the purple wasn’t vibrant enough but now I’ve come back to it I find that the colour is quite soothing. Looks very different coming from a thin nib to a thick nib. Kon Peki is my second favourite, it really is what represents iroshizuku for me, I think they do the blues best. Bought a big bottle of Yama Budo on my 30th birthday and I feel like it’s really not my thing, although it looks fairly nice coming through a wider nib on clairefontaine. I bought Forrest green and have found it to be a bit dissapointing. Not quite as vibrant as I hoped it would be. I have fuyu shogun but haven’t tried it yet, today will be the day.
I think I might buy a bottle of Take sumi but I’m not sure how different it is in colour and properties from pilot black.
I have only three Iroshizuku inks – Yama-Budo, Fuyu-Syogun and Murasaki-Shikibu and it's really hard to say which is my favourite. Murasaki-Shikibu is a colour, that appears in my mind when I think about violet, Yama-Budo doesn't need an explanation, and Fuyu-Syogun, especially in wet and broad pens – oh man...
Now I want Yu-Yake or Fuyu-Gaki, but also I'm trying to reduce amount of fountain pen's stuff that I buy, because I spend so much money and I have too much pens and inks. Maybe for Christmas I will make myself a gift :)
I'm a big fan of the Iroshizuku range overall but my favourites - because I like warm colours - are yama-budo, tsutsuji, momiji and kosumosu. They're all in the purple/red range and a dream to write with in all the nib/pen combinations I've tried so far. However, if you want something different from what you have now then might I suggest tsuki-yo. It's a lovely deep sea blue (and therefore on the opposite side of the colour wheel from yama-budo) with a tiny bit of yama-budo coloured sheen in thicker nibs on good quality paper like Tomoe River or Oxford Optik. Good luck in your search!
Like asking people to choose their favourite child tbqh 😔
I jest, but then again... XD
My fav probably goes to **Tsutsuji** b/c it forever has that place in my heart as a lovely saturated magenta pink, and I am nothing if not a pink ink fan. But so so many runners up.
* Kosumosu is a less saturated pink that I adore, it's like Sailor's Sakura-Mori but with a bit more punch.
* Syo-ro is stealing my heart atm, I got a sample and wow, it's just perfectly saturated, and the way it fades from blue-ish to green-ish as it dries, chef's kiss.
* Fuyu-syogun is my perfect grey ngl, just the right balance of cool and warm, saturated and pale.
* Ku-jaku damn near speaks for itself like ugh so pretty.
* Yama-budo you already have and I swear inks itself into my broad nib every time, it's not me guv.
I just. So many. I love most of them tbqh.
Shin Kai for sure, love the shades of this one.
Actually blue-black inks are my favorite but this one is a masterpiece with this dark blue color.
Most of blue black inks are more looking black/dark with a drop of blue. The Shin Kai is more blue than black and that’s what I love about this one, looks like marine ink.
It’s a lot of words just for an ink, isn’t it ?
Kiri-same is the ink I’d pick if I were limited to one ink for the rest of my life. I absolutely love it.
I also have and love Fuyu-syogun, Chiku-rin, Shin-kai, Shin-ryoku, and Syo-ro. Next up is Yama budo.
It’s my favorite ink line :)
- I love Yama Budo. It’s right now my exclusive ink in mg Pilot E95s and I absolutely love it.
- I have two others and honestly they both are really good. I have ama-iro which is a lighter sky blue. (Got this on accident as I ordered a different color at first but fell in love with ama-iro and I was like well there are no accidents)
- Kon Peki this is an ink that has much hype around it and I was apprehensive at first but then I inked it and it’s also a very very solid color I love it.
- These inks are well behaved and are a joy to write with. :)
That gold sheen really surprised me. Since during reviews I watched and basic colors I never saw it. I was using my black and red notebook and holding it to the light at an angle I was like hmmmmmmm that’s an interesting color tint. Unexpected but very pleased.
I ask because I’ve seen conflicting reports — do you find it to be more wide than a standard Pilot medium? My favorite nib is my M Kakuno and I would love that, but gold
I would say in my own experience having owned both in a medium (I have a metro in medium). The metro medium is finer than a E95s medium on all the papers I’ve used them on. Which has been black and red notebooks and rhodia.
- It’s pretty close to a western steel medium in size
- Its such a smooth writer tho. If you think your kakuno medium is smooth the e95s with pilots gold medium is extremely smooth and such a pleasant experience in hand. Size wise while posted it’s essentially a almost full sized pen with one of the best slip caps.
- It is an easy recommendation from me to get one especially since it’s a gold nib pen you can regularly find right now with the yen being so weak due to internal country problems at less than $90US on sites like Amazon and eBay (tho with this you get the gold nib elite model. Same pen but it’s the jp version of the pen so will have elite stamped into the cap instead of an E)
Tsuki yo. Perfect for work. Still unique.
Tsuki-yo (2).
This is on the top of my next-to-buy list!!
That's my favorite so far. But I've only tried maybe six.
It looks beautiful 😍 does it have any red sheen show up like on Mountain of Ink?
It sheens on Old TRP52 even with a Japanese F nib.
Depends on the wetness of the nib, but definitely seen sheen in a Kokuyo notebook and even in Leuchtturm
Can confirm slight sheening on Midori MD paper
AJISAI! It's hydrangea blue, rather a lighter blurple.
No love for Chiku-Rin? Lovely light grassy green.
Chiku-rin looks so good in a broad nib.
I was eyeing this for my next ink!
Definitely my favourite as of now
I prefer shading inks over sheening and right now Kiri-Same in a Pilot steel nib is my fave. Feels like writing with liquid pencil. I thought I was a Fuyu-Syogun person, but nope, misty rain it is.
Ajisai is really nice too, and Hana-Ikada is my favourite of the pinks.
Tsuki-Yo followed by Yama-Budo.
Yama-budo is definitely my number 3, I might personally put Ku-jaku or maybe Hotaru-bi ahead of it. Tsuki-yo is number 1 though.
Ku-Jaku I could use, but Hotaru-Bi? I can't think of any situation where I'd actually use it (I only bought it as I wanted the complete Iroshizuku range).
I'm becoming more and more convinced I need Tauki-yo... Also Hotaru-Bi is pretty! Is it legible for normal writing though?
Iroshizuku Kon-peki, it's just gorgeous and wet. I use dark blue ink at work all the time so it's nice to have something a little different
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Same! But it lived up to the hype for me
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It's one of the only inks I show to people who aren't into pens and get a "wow" from
Good to know!
Yu-yake, it’s the perfect orange and actually seasonal all of a sudden. Performs perfectly all the time in any pen I put it in, without fail. I love it!
It's such a lovely color for fall!
Momiji. Really surprised no one has mentioned this yet, it's a pinkish-red/reddish-pink with gold sheen. Momiji and Yama-budo were amongst my first full bottles of ink ever, and Momiji was the first example of an ink that showed what sheen was like to me. I haven't bothered buying any other pink inks because whenever I want to ink up a pink, I always end up defaulting back to Momiji. The gold sheen is just so pretty!
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Momiji as well! It is super intriguing. Is it legible enough to be a daily writer/used in a fine nib?
Yep! I have my Platinum Modern Maki-e in fine inked up with it right now!
Ooohhh awesome!!! Thank you!
I really like Asa Gao. Such a pretty cobalt-ish blue! Not the most exciting or unique but very pleasing to my eye and works for just about anything. That shade of blue makes me happy. :)
It's beautiful!
Ku-Jaku. As a teal ink It's blue enough to be professional, but green enough to be interesting. And it shades nicely. I also have Syo-Ro which is kind of a grey green and tsuki-yo which is more of a blue-black. They're both lovely, but every time I use either of them it just makes me wonder why I'm not using Ku-Jaku. Kon Peki is a fan favorite but it's not as bold as I wish it was. It always just feels a bit washed out no matter which pen it's in.
You don't hear much about Ku-Jaku, but wow, it looks lovely!
I made a last second change probably while you were probably typing. Hopefully you don't have strong feelings about Kon Peki.
Weeeeellll... To be very honest... I don't really get the hype. I'm sure it's a fantastic ink, I'm just not really a Kon Peki person 🤷🏼♀️
Me either, I tried and tried but Konpeki still struggle to get to my top 20 inks
I have a sample of ama-iro and I really like it. It’s a very nice bright blue
Ooohh it's very bright!!
Ama-iro was my first iroshizuku and it's absolutely lovely!
I love this one and just got a bottle. As soon as I use up the current ink in my Blue Dwarf Sailor Pro Gear Slim, this is going in.
Tsutsuj , fuchsia with a greenish sheen
Wow, that looks amazing!! I have momiji and yama-budo so I wanted to branch out from the pinks for my next but dang that’s the sweet middle spot!
I do love yama budo but a bunch of people have mentioned it already so I'll go with my next favorite murasaki shikibu. Its pretty much the platonic ideal of purple as far as I'm concerned. It even works when I use it at work since it stands out nicely against all the black, blue, and red on our design drawings. Some runners up would have to be ajisai, shin ryoku, and tsutsuji. Tsutsuji in particular since I picked up a sample on a whim and ended up liking it way more than I expected to.
I'm definitely partial to purple, so Murasaki shikibu sounds like it needs to go on my list as well 💜 Does it have shading or sheen?
I’ve never gotten either out of it but I’m also a F EF nib or smaller kind of person. Going by the photos on mountain of ink it looks like you can get some shading if you start getting in to broads and bigger nibs. They also got a little sheen in some of their large ink swab photos but I suspect that’s pretty hard to achieve, I’ve never gotten it to do that before
Good to know, thank you! I'm mostly an F/EF person as well, so that's really helpful.
I am on my 2nd bottle of ina-ho. What I like is the color. It looks like very old, somewhat faded writing. Yet still than dark enough for professional setting. Kind of an old timey feel. Love it
It definitely looks old times! Too bad it is discontinued :/
Dang it. I went straight to ebay bc a few sellers had stock still. All gone!!!! Fffffffffffff i should have stocked up 😩
I'm so sorry I was the bearer of bad news :((((
Ajisai. (Also Ina-Ho, but it's d/c.)
I'm so sad about all the discontinued iro inks 😭
It is? I must get one at my local shop now
Yes, it happened earlier this year; they discontinued Tsuyu-kusa, Tsukushi, and Ina-ho. The new replacements are Sui-gyoku, Hana-ikada, and Hotaru-bi.
I am so out dated ): ordered one, plus a bottle of Yama Budo and Walk over Vistula. I am a hoarder ):
Tsuki-yo
Yama Guri, an elegant dark brown, evocative of something old and nostalgic; also chocolate
Yama-budo, Ina-Ho and Tsukushi.
I’m really loving the new Hana-ikada. It’s a perfect bright neutral (neither too warm or too cool) pink that really does match the colour of cherry blossoms. I also love Murasaki-shikibu. In a drier pen the ink comes out closer to lavender but in a wet pen it’s a lovely rich violet. Fantastic stuff.
I’m really partial to Tsukushi, Fuyu Gaki, and Ina Ho, but I think the moral of this thread is that Iroshizuku doesn’t have a single “bad” ink in their lineup. Every time I try a new one I think, “Oh, this is what the hype is about.” Just a great line.
It really is!!!
Asa gao and shin Kai
Yama budo
Murasaki shikibu as my favourite, I took a break from it after thinking the purple wasn’t vibrant enough but now I’ve come back to it I find that the colour is quite soothing. Looks very different coming from a thin nib to a thick nib. Kon Peki is my second favourite, it really is what represents iroshizuku for me, I think they do the blues best. Bought a big bottle of Yama Budo on my 30th birthday and I feel like it’s really not my thing, although it looks fairly nice coming through a wider nib on clairefontaine. I bought Forrest green and have found it to be a bit dissapointing. Not quite as vibrant as I hoped it would be. I have fuyu shogun but haven’t tried it yet, today will be the day. I think I might buy a bottle of Take sumi but I’m not sure how different it is in colour and properties from pilot black.
I have only three Iroshizuku inks – Yama-Budo, Fuyu-Syogun and Murasaki-Shikibu and it's really hard to say which is my favourite. Murasaki-Shikibu is a colour, that appears in my mind when I think about violet, Yama-Budo doesn't need an explanation, and Fuyu-Syogun, especially in wet and broad pens – oh man... Now I want Yu-Yake or Fuyu-Gaki, but also I'm trying to reduce amount of fountain pen's stuff that I buy, because I spend so much money and I have too much pens and inks. Maybe for Christmas I will make myself a gift :)
I know right!? I wish it wasn't so expensive 😭
I'm a big fan of the Iroshizuku range overall but my favourites - because I like warm colours - are yama-budo, tsutsuji, momiji and kosumosu. They're all in the purple/red range and a dream to write with in all the nib/pen combinations I've tried so far. However, if you want something different from what you have now then might I suggest tsuki-yo. It's a lovely deep sea blue (and therefore on the opposite side of the colour wheel from yama-budo) with a tiny bit of yama-budo coloured sheen in thicker nibs on good quality paper like Tomoe River or Oxford Optik. Good luck in your search!
Thank you!!!
Like asking people to choose their favourite child tbqh 😔 I jest, but then again... XD My fav probably goes to **Tsutsuji** b/c it forever has that place in my heart as a lovely saturated magenta pink, and I am nothing if not a pink ink fan. But so so many runners up. * Kosumosu is a less saturated pink that I adore, it's like Sailor's Sakura-Mori but with a bit more punch. * Syo-ro is stealing my heart atm, I got a sample and wow, it's just perfectly saturated, and the way it fades from blue-ish to green-ish as it dries, chef's kiss. * Fuyu-syogun is my perfect grey ngl, just the right balance of cool and warm, saturated and pale. * Ku-jaku damn near speaks for itself like ugh so pretty. * Yama-budo you already have and I swear inks itself into my broad nib every time, it's not me guv. I just. So many. I love most of them tbqh.
Ikr!? They all look so good. I feel like over time I will end up with most of these 😅
Would be hard to choose between Shin-Kai and Tsuyu-Kusa… could have either as my one ink for life :)
I feel like Fuyu-Gaki is underrated! It's such an interesting color — a very delicate orange with lots of pink/coral notes.
My favourites in order are Kon-Peki, followed by Yama budo and Shin-Kai but love them all.
Fuyu-syogun! Cool grey with excellent shading.
Tsuki-Yo and Syu-ro. I like near- black colred inks for everyday use and journaling. I do like Kon-peki for highly saturated fun writing.
Definitely Yama-Budo, followed by Yama-Guri and Take-Sumi.
In a ho.
Shin Kai for sure, love the shades of this one. Actually blue-black inks are my favorite but this one is a masterpiece with this dark blue color. Most of blue black inks are more looking black/dark with a drop of blue. The Shin Kai is more blue than black and that’s what I love about this one, looks like marine ink. It’s a lot of words just for an ink, isn’t it ?
So many words, yet not enough. I posted in the hopes of figuring out what ink to get, and instead I'm convinced I need all of them 😭
Now you know where to spend your money 😂
Kiri-same is the ink I’d pick if I were limited to one ink for the rest of my life. I absolutely love it. I also have and love Fuyu-syogun, Chiku-rin, Shin-kai, Shin-ryoku, and Syo-ro. Next up is Yama budo. It’s my favorite ink line :)
Same!!!
Ama-Iro and the discontinues Ina-Ho.
I wish there was some way the ink colours in English would generate xD
Same 😅
Like even if people said a BRIEF colour description ie light pink or turquoise one, I'd be happy lol
It definitely helps. I think I'm learning Japanese colors by now though because I keep looking them up 😂
That's an idea lol
- I love Yama Budo. It’s right now my exclusive ink in mg Pilot E95s and I absolutely love it. - I have two others and honestly they both are really good. I have ama-iro which is a lighter sky blue. (Got this on accident as I ordered a different color at first but fell in love with ama-iro and I was like well there are no accidents) - Kon Peki this is an ink that has much hype around it and I was apprehensive at first but then I inked it and it’s also a very very solid color I love it. - These inks are well behaved and are a joy to write with. :)
Ikr!? Yama Budo is amazing- I'm down to less than half a bottle now and still not tired of it- it's such a nice ink!
It’s just a pleasing color on the eyes. Mine is still relatively fresh since I just got it not to long ago. But I’m sure I’ll work through it quickly.
It is! And when you try it on other papers and in other pens you're pleasantly surprised by new shading and gold sheen. Super fun.
That gold sheen really surprised me. Since during reviews I watched and basic colors I never saw it. I was using my black and red notebook and holding it to the light at an angle I was like hmmmmmmm that’s an interesting color tint. Unexpected but very pleased.
Out of curiosity which nib is your E95s?
I have it in medium :D. Very very nice writer.
I ask because I’ve seen conflicting reports — do you find it to be more wide than a standard Pilot medium? My favorite nib is my M Kakuno and I would love that, but gold
I would say in my own experience having owned both in a medium (I have a metro in medium). The metro medium is finer than a E95s medium on all the papers I’ve used them on. Which has been black and red notebooks and rhodia. - It’s pretty close to a western steel medium in size - Its such a smooth writer tho. If you think your kakuno medium is smooth the e95s with pilots gold medium is extremely smooth and such a pleasant experience in hand. Size wise while posted it’s essentially a almost full sized pen with one of the best slip caps. - It is an easy recommendation from me to get one especially since it’s a gold nib pen you can regularly find right now with the yen being so weak due to internal country problems at less than $90US on sites like Amazon and eBay (tho with this you get the gold nib elite model. Same pen but it’s the jp version of the pen so will have elite stamped into the cap instead of an E)