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ink review : TACCIA Ukiyo-e - Hiroshige - ainezu TACCIA is a Japanese stationery company, that - as far as I know - is now 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 prints 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, I take a closer look at ainezu, a dark and stormy grey that is inspired by the painting “Sudden Shower at Shin-Ohashi Bridge” of the artist Utagawa Hiroshige. It was published in 1857 as part of the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo and is one his best known prints. Sudden showers are a recurring theme in ukiyo-e works and here, in what Hiroshige calls "white rain", the downpour is depicted using a large number of thin dark parallel lines in 2 directions - a difficult skill in woodblock carving. The dark clouds are produced using a gradated bokashi technique and vary significantly between prints. The rain, sheltering people and log raft at the centre of the image give the image a sense of movement. Ainezu is a dark grey with strong teal undertones, that are mostly visible in swabs or when using the ink for drawing. It’s a beautiful complex grey that lays down a wet & dark line that quickly dries to a lighter but still contrast-rich tint. A very strong shader, this one, even in fine nibs. And on top of that, it shows a fair amount of water resistance. All factors combined, this makes it an excellent choice for use at work: the dark grey colour will fit right in, and the strong shading and dark teal undertones will certainly draw the attention of your co-workers. I like this ink a lot: a great grey for writing, and one that really opens up when using it for drawing. 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. Ainezu has a fairly wide dynamic range, ranging from a pale indigo-tinged grey to a much more saturated dark teal-grey. The contrast between the light and dark parts is not harsh though, which translates to beautiful shading – very present but not too loud. The shading appears in all nib sizes - just a hint with the EF nib, but really present with F-nibs and above. The aesthetics are superb, adding lots of character to your writing. The ink’s chromatography clearly shows the lovely complexity of this grey: grey, indigo, some sky-blue, and – to my eye – a shimmer of green. The bottom part of the chroma also indicates that this is a fairly water-resistant ink, which is confirmed during water tests. TACCIA’s ink makers Hiroshi Ishiguro and Hanse Matsumoto know their craft, and created with this ainezu a wonderfully complex grey that just looks amazing. 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 a Pelikan M101N with M-nib Drying times of the ink on the paper (with the M-nib Safari) Ainezu looks good on all types of paper – both white and more creamy ones. It lays down a wet and dark line that quickly dries to a lighter tint (5-10 second range). No feathering that I can see. And it can even handle crappy paper (like Moleskine) with ease – good-looking writing, and only limited show-through and bleed-through. A good ink for the workplace! I’ve also added a few photos 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 photos capture the ink best. The scans seem to exaggerate the teal undertones in the swabs. Writing with different nib sizes The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. The EF-nib already shows a hint of shading. But it is with the F-nib and above that the ink’s elegant shading really comes into play. Look e.g. at the shading with the Safari M and B nib – that’s why I use a fountain pen! I personally prefer to use this ink with the drier pens where the shading is more prominent. With wetter pens (like the Pelikan M101N Lizard), the ink gets a bit too saturated and starts to drown out the shading. Related inks To compare ainezu 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. I have lots of greys in my collection, but this TACCIA colour still looks different from all the other ones. Diamine Earl Grey has that same complexity, but is a much cooler shade (cool as in cold, but it's really cool too ;-). Inkxperiment – Ungawa, Timba With every review, I try to create an inkxperiment using only the ink I am reviewing. These one-ink drawings are great for showing the colour-range nuances that can be achieved with a single ink. And it’s great fun to experiment with inks in a more artsy context – I love doing these inkxperiments. They are one of the many things I enjoy about the hobby. During the holiday season, I re-viewed some of the really old Johnny Weismüller movies – grainy black&white cinema, but fun stories and totally uncomplicated. I really enjoyed one of the scenes where Tarzan and his elephants come to the rescue. That’s where the inspiration for this elephant drawing comes from. The picture itself is an adaptation of one I saw on Pinterest. HP photo paper usually brings out the best in inks, so I decided to use it for this drawing. In this case, it really enhances the dark teal undertones in the ink. I started by wetting the photo paper, and drawing some circles on it with pure ainezu, using a glass jar as a stamp. Next I used several passes with a paintbrush and pure ink to darken up the center of the page. After the background had dried completely, I used a glass dip pen and bleach to draw in Tarzan on his elephant. Bleach reacts nicely with ainezu, producing a golden-white colour. The picture gives you an idea of what can be achieved when using ainezu for drawing. Conclusion TACCIA Ukiyo-e Hiroshige ainezu is a near perfect writing ink – good technical properties on all paper types, fairly water-resistent, good contrast with the page and some very nice shading. Colourwise it is an intriguing dark & stormy grey with definite teal undertones. A beautiful ink that totally fits my tastes. Highly recommended! Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib Back-side of writing samples on different paper types

Taccia overview: Taccia is a Taiwanese-American brand started in California, that has been recently been bought by the Nakabayashi company. Nakabayashi is a maker of a long list of home and office products who have, under the Taccia brand, begun making fountain pen inks. All Taccia inks are made in Japan. There is some speculation as to whether Sailor makes the Taccia inks, but I have found no evidence to prove this. What I can say, according the the information I was able to gather is that at the time when Nakabayashi bought Taccia and wanted to release inks under that brand, they entered into an agreement with Sailor for the purposes of expert ink consultation. A couple of the Taccia standard line bear a striking resemblance to Sailor Jentle/Shikiori inks. Outside and within the standard line, they have a few unique inks. Also, Taccia inks I have tried do not have that "Sailor-made smell" you are all so familiar with. The Ukiyo-e Ink Series was released overseas in 2019. In March 2020, a second series of 8 inks was released. These are for Utamara Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. I saw the release post on the Nagasawa Instagram page and emailed them directly for order. As of this publication, other Japanese bungu retailers have received stocks. They were Y1,600 or USD15 for each 40ml bottle of ink. The below translated names in Japanese and English are credited unchanged to Nagasawa Kobe Stationary store. Second Series Taccia Ukiyo-e Includes: 歌川広重（Hiroshige Utagawa） 1.広重浅縹（Hiroshige asahanada） 2.広重瑠璃（Hiroshige Ruri） 3.広重中紫（Hiroshige Nakamurasaki） 4.広重藍鼠（Hiroshige Ainezu） 喜多川歌麿（Utamaro Kitagawa） 5.歌麿紅桜（Utamaro Beni Zakura） 6.歌麿青紫（Utamaro Aomurasaki） 7.歌麿薄墨（Utamaro Usuzumi） 8.歌麿梅紫（Utamaro Umemurasaki） I’ve only opened one of the inks so far, and that is Taccia Hiroshige Ainezu. Now let’s get into the review. Online images are unhelpful. Taccia's own marketing materials do not give a fair representation of any of the inks I've tried. I would have sworn, from seeing their images and sample writing, that Ainezu was going to be a blue-black ink. I was way off. Ink bottle opening will fit large nibs comfortably, they are 40ml glass bottles with metal caps. The packaging is lovely, and far larger than the bottle needs in space to fit, which is nice, as this means the box artwork is easier to admire. Packaging & Bottle Each bottle comes packaged with a sturdy card. I've included both series below. The good stuff. Tomoe River Paper 52gsm White This is a gray ink, through and through. What I am able to cypher from the Kanji is that Ainezu means indigo-tinged gray. The kanji: 藍鼠 藍 ai / indigo 鼠 nezu / dark gray Ink Characteristics 1. Well-behaved 2. No feathering 3. No bleed-through 4. Acceptably wet 5. Smooth flowing, not gushing 6. Good shading in right pen [light to dark gray] 7. Easy cleaning with a few flushes 8. No staining discovered 9. Unexpected water resistance Other Ink properties you might find interesting is the ink goes on as a super-dark gray, almost black. It lightens as it dries which makes writing easy on the eyes. This is the opposite effect of Montblanc Spider Web Grey, which goes on nearly invisible when wet and dries darker. I prefer the former over the latter. As for the sheen, it is seen in the borders between light and dark, and is red and coppery. It does not overwhelm. The ink also looks quite light or dark depending on the paper and pen used. The shading also varies greatly under these conditions. Rhodia Dotpad Life Bank Paper Mead notebook paper / college ruled There is barely any feathering, which is quite good considering the wetness of the pen (and the terrible quality of the paper). It only shows up on close inspection. Even in this image it is difficult to spot. Water drop test Rhodia Water drown and dab test Rhodia Rubbed in and swirled. Pretty good. Both water tests left for 2+ minutes. Ink also dry for 2 minutes. Dry times Pretty average. Comparison Tomoe River Paper 52gsm Cream That's it! I do believe that we should receive this second set at some point, as we have had everything except for the special editions and the jeans ink available outside of Japan. Finally, of the newer ink manufacturers, Taccia is definitely a personal favorite. And I've been on a gray ink kick, so this was a welcome surprise. To be honest, I would't have really minded if it was another blue-black. I like those too. And that's the end of my first review. Hope you enjoyed this. I may do the remainder once I’ve tried them and if this was helpful to anyone. Happy inking and thank you for your time.