Ink Review: Teranishi Taisho Roman “Gentle Green”

I had a lot of fun writing the first ink review yesterday, so I decided to move on immediately to the second one. This time, I’m looking at “Gentle Green” from Teranishi’s “Taisho Roman” line.

The naming of this ink line is a bit of a mess. First, you have the name of the company, Teranishi Chemical Industry. Then there’s “Guitar”, which I think is the overall brand name for their fountain pen and ink-related products (since they also make/carry a fountain pen named “Guitar”). After this comes “Taisho Roman Haikara Ink,” the name of the ink line, and then finally the name of the ink itself, “Gentle Green.” Wow. It’s really crazy if you untangle it like this. There are just too many words here. For the sake of this review, I’m just going to call it “Teranishi Gentle Green.”

“Taisho Roman” roughly translates to “Taisho Period Nostalgia/Romanticism.” The Taisho period lasted from 1912 to 1926 – it’s a rather short episode in Japanese history, but for many today, it carries the same kind of idealized nostalgia that many in the west feel towards the time of the Roaring 20s. It was a time when modern western culture started to truly permeate Japan. This is reflected in the ink line’s packaging – it shows phonographs, vintage-looking automobiles and phones, sailor uniforms, steam trains, etc. While using cheap materials, Teranishi managed to create a very theme-appropriate and nice-looking packaging for this ink like.

The first wave of these inks was released in the second half of 2021, and apparently they were a big success. As of January 2023, the ink line has expanded from the initial 4 to a total of 16 colors. I think that the packaging played a big role here. Teranishi is aiming for the same kind of audience that’s interested in Ferris Wheel Press inks – mostly young women that like to play around with ink and glass/dip pens (InkyRocks on YouTube calls them “Inkunuma Ladies”).

Judging by the rapid expansion of the ink line, it seems like Teranishi was successful with approaching their target audience. They managed to hit a sweet spot in the market, combining low-price but not cheap-looking packaging and evocative branding with a reasonable price. In Japan, you can get two bottles of Teranishi ink (40ml each) for the price of one FWP 38ml bottle – so it’s a perfect choice for Instagram-conscious newcomers to the hobby.

But now let’s talk about the actual ink! “Gentle Green” is one of the original 4 colors released in September 2021. It’s a blue-leaning green that reminds me of green velvet sofa cushion covers and patina-covered statues or iron fences. For the swatches and writing sample below, I used a simple Muji notepad. The ink looks roughly the same across different papers, maybe appearing a bit more dusty/paler on Tomoe River.

Similar to the ink that I reviewed last time, this is a color-changing ink. When freshly put down, the ink is a dark blue that eventually fades into the slightly undersaturated green that you can see above. For some, this might me nothing more than a neat gimmick, since you only see the blue color for a few seconds after writing. For me though, it may be one of my favourite fountain pen ink effects. It’s something you simply don’t get from ballpoint or gel pen ink, for example.

In larger swatches, Gentle Green shows some beautiful dark red/purple sheen in the areas where it pools. However, as you can tell from the writing sample, this effect doesn’t really show up in regular writing (it may be visible when the ink is used in larger/wider nibs). For the most part, your writing will carry the color of the tail end (right-hand side) of the swatches.

Conclusion

Teranishi Gentle Green is a nice, calming green with interesting color change properties. It’s a color that I mostly feel drawn to during wintertime, but it’s also dark and unobtrusive enough to be used regardless of the season for everyday writing in journals, notebooks etc.

Right now, I own two Teranishi inks, Gentle Green and Antique Black (which I might review next). Overall, I’ve been really happy with these inks. The packaging looks neat, but they don’t feel overpriced because of it (like FWP), the colors are interesting and there’s lots of options now. There are many colors that I could see ending up in my collection – Smoky Navy, Nostalgic Honey, Opera Rose, Brilliant Mint, or Traveling Sepia. You can see all inks and color previews of them on Teranishis homepage.

Ink Review: Sailor Yurameku “Sukigokoro”

For my first ink review on this blog, I’m going to review an ink from Sailor’s second wave of the Yurameku line: Sukigokoro. I only bought this ink in December 2022 (a few days after release), but it’s already climbed very high in my personal rankings. After using it for a bit, I feel like I’ve found a very early candidate for my personal favourite ink of the year (it will at least make it into the top 10, I think).

_{The bottle and packaging. Unlike the first wave of Yurameku inks,
the second wave comes in dark paper packaging, reflecting the darker colors of the inks.}

Before looking the properties and appearance of the ink, let’s have a quick look at its naming, since all inks in the Yurameku line have rather poetic names. The inks from the first wave were named after natural phenomena, but the second wave heads into a different direction altogether. All of these inks have “kokoro/gokoro” in their name, which translates to “soul” or “mind.” The other part of the name then reflects a certain aspect, state or condition of the human soul or psyche.

The “suki” part of Sukigokoro dates back to the Muromachi period (1336 – 1574), where it was used to refer to people enoying classical poetry. Over time, it became associated with the art of Japanese tea ceremony and other fields and ideas connected to it, like (tea room/tea house) architecture or the wabi-sabi aesthetic. From there, it’s not hard to see how Sailor arrived at their description for the ink:

優雅で趣のある風流な心
“An elegant soul with refined taste”

But enough with the names. How does this ink actually look like? Like many other inks from the Yurameku line, it’s an ink that kind of defies being pigeonholed into a color category. In addition to changing colors upon drying on the page, the end result of the color change is different depending on what kind of paper you use. To show these variations, I made three swatches for this ink: One on (old) Tomoe River paper, one on Rhodia, and one on a regular old notepad from Muji.

Tomoe River

When freshly put onto the page, Sukigokoro is a darkish teal. Tomoe River paper is where this “original color” is retained best, but there still is a clear shift from blue to a muted gray-green as the ink dries. This is the main color that shows up in writing (the lines in the picture were written with a Pilot iro-utsushi dip pen with an F nib). When applied heavily, the ink appears bluer and also shows some dark red sheed in the especially concentrated areas. However, my impression is that this effect will only be noticeable in the wettest of B and BB nibs and flex pens.

Rhodia

On Rhodia paper, Sukigokoro appears mostly gray when dry, with some green and brown undertones. The color is rather complex and reminds me of Rikyu-cha or Tokiwa-matsu from the Shikiori line. It has a similar “natural” kind of look to it, with the darker areas tending towards brown and the lighter areas towards green. Out of all the three papers that I’ve tried, this color is closest to what is shown on the label on the ink bottle, although it’s still a lot grayer and less saturated. The writing sample here was done with a Pilot Prera (M nib).

_{Close-up of the Rhodia swatch.}

Muji notepad

Finally, the swatch on the Muji notepad. While useable with fountain pens, this paper is the cheapest of the bunch. It also shows the most dramatic color change, from the initial teal to a brown with green undertones. This effect was what initially got me interested in the ink. I had encountered inks that got darker upon drying (mostly iron galls) or inks that changed color from one to the other, but never an ink that went through multiple colors.

The picture above shows the end result, after the ink has fully dried. Again, I get strong Rikyu-cha vibes here. The photo below was taken right after I put down the bottom swatch line, with the top one being mostly dry. It must’ve been only a few seconds after I put down the swatch, but even in the bottom line you can already see the blue/teal fading into some kind of gray on the upper tail end of the swatch, eventually turning into green and then brown. A fascinating effect that I haven’t been able to observe with any other ink.

Conclusion

I’d definitely recommend this ink to anyone who enjoys multishaders and other weird color properties. The color-change effect is very interesting to watch, and the different appearances of the ink on different papers ensures that you won’t get tired of it too soon. For someone like me who tends to prefer darker or gray-leaning, “understated” inks that still show some complexities, this one is a smash hit. I hope If you’re the opposite and enjoy more vibrant or saturated colors, but still want some of properties that the second Yurameku wave offers, check out Hanagokoro or Dategokoro (Hanagokoro changes from blue to a brownish red, and Dategokoro from blue to a rich purple).

If you’re still undecided if this ink is for you after reading this post, I’d reccomend checking out this video on YouTube by niki.notebook which shows off the color change in timelapse as well as some other ink and paper combos (Mnemosyne, LIFE Bank Paper).

While Sukigokoro is the only Yurameku ink I’ve bought so far, I tested some of the others in the Ancora store and will definitely be getting one or two more. I hope Sailor comes out with at least one more wave of these darker Yurameku inks!

Pens and Ink 2022: Personal Highlights

In the latest episode (#73) of the Tokyo Inklings podcast, the hosts talked about their ink- and pen-related personal highlights of 2022 and made a few predictions for the next year.

These kinds of posts are usually made at the end of the old year and not at the start of the new one, but listening to the episode made me want to make my own short list with my own little categories. So here we go.

Note: Unlike the podcast, this list is not exclusively focused on events, new product releases etc. that happened in 2022, but on stuff that I personally encountered, appreciated etc.

Best new ink release: Sailor Yurameku

This award goes to Sailor with their new “Yurameku” line. To be honest, I wasn’t that wowed with the initial wave – the colors, while pretty, were too pale for everyday use (I tend towards F and EF nibs) and overall, the whole concept of the product (inks that you can’t really put a color identifier on) still felt a bit weird to me at the time.

However, even though I didn’t end up buying any inks from the first wave, I grew to appreciate the concept over time – and then the second wave came, right at the end of the year. These inks are darker, highlly legible when used with finer nibs and show a really neat color changing effect when freshly put down as well as interesting complexities when dry.

Until now, I’ve only got Sukigokoro, but at least two more from the line are on my ink list.

Best event: INK.Ink.ink! @ Itoya Ginza

This was the first fountain pen-related event that I attended ever, so of course it was something special for me (one or two of the big pen/stationery shows in Tokyo are on my list for 2023).

The event was held in the basement of the Itoya store in Ginza. Hundreds of ink bottles lined up on glass cases/tables, and participants could freely swatch (and of course, buy) inks for the duration of their time slot (I believe it was around 2 hours).

Here in Japan, ink samples aren’t a thing, so this was a nice opportunity to test out some inks that I was on the fence or just curious about.

Most used pen: Sailor Lecoule

Picture from Jetpens

Over the years, I’ve amassed what I’d call a reasonably-sized pen collection – not so many that I feel like I’m drowning in pens, but enough that I have to rotate through them to use all of them (semi-)regularly. Obviously, there are pens that you tend to use more often than others. Overall, the pen that I found myself reaching for most often in 2022 was my Sailor Lecoule (Safari Beige version).

When trying to be as objective as possible, the Sailor Lecoule is nothing special – it’s one of Sailor’s low-end offerings with only one nib size (Medium Fine). If there’s one special thing about it, it’s that it comes in a bunch of neat color variations. The Rose Quartz one seems to be especially popular. At the same time, at around 3,000JPY, it’s expensive enough that even I would’t really recommend it to anyone – it’s not like you get a lot of bang for your buck or a really nice nib, as is the case with a lot of lower end Pilot pens, for example. Still, I found myself strangely enjoying it.

I think things just come down to design and aesthetics on this one. I like the shape with the flat tops, the simple, no-nonsense design, and the slight retro feel coming from the almost crude-looking nib. I don’t feel like I have to be overly careful with it, it’s pocket-sized and easy to carry around – it’s not exciting, but just a good daily driver.

Best content: niki.notebook

I think this YouTube channel didn’t start in 2022, but I personally first started noticing it around June. The (unnamed) creator behind the channel – let’s call her niki for convenience – posts mostly ink reviews, in a format that I find very pleasant to look at.

The videos are all video and music only, with no talking whatsoever. Instead, nikis comments show up on the sides in writing. The reviews provide all the information I want – how an ink looks in a swatch, in a fountain pen, when used with a glass/dip pen, properties like shading and sheen … all with beautiful page layouts and nice lettering/illustrations. A nice plus is that nikis taste in ink tends to align with my own – so there are always videos on colors that I’m interested in.

The videos are made for a Japanese audience, and there are no English subtitles. However, even without being able to read the writing and the creator’s comments, I think the reviews are still easy to follow and understand. I’d recommend the channel to anyone looking for ink reviews!