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For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them. The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book. Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor. Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice. Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel. Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna. The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections. Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement. The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book. Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel. The ink appears to be of single dye, not water resistant; and the flow here is a bit less than other Sailor inks, not to be point of being dry or anything but just not as wet. My Mina with a fine nib, that's usually quite wet, wrote with a nice fine line with this ink. It was somewhat shady, but not in a dramatic way. In the very wet medium-nibbed Mina we got more dramatic shading. The color probably isn't very exciting for many people as the color when dry is closer to Noodler's Monkey Hanger, Sailor KN Porpita porpita, and the like. This is not a deep, dramatic blue. But I still find it charming and a nice change. It's closer to the color of the sky as it nears the horizon. Even with the fine nib there is red sheen in the loops and punctuation of the letters, very distinct. This ink is a good deal more expensive than other Sailor bespoke inks, but not quite to the Bungbox level. Only available in Japan, so some sleuthing and persistence necessary to get a bottle. In gylyf's review, he states that this ink is somewhat close to Sailor Kobe #17 Shioya Blue, which will be a cheaper, more readily available alternative. Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel), Edison Mina (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them. The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book. Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor. Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice. Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel. Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna. The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections. Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement. The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book. Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel. Pen: Gate City Belmont (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 This is my third review of the inks from the Hougado Pen Galley shop in Japan. This is a muted green in the green gold range, more like between KWZI Green Gold 2 and Green Gold. It's slightly lighter, more yellow, and more muted than the KN Tanna japonesis. It is not near as light as the BB 88 Green Tea. There's nothing problematic with the ink regarding handling, all is good as expected from Sailor. Not water resistant. Very shady, but no sheen at all even on Tomoe River paper. The ink seemed a little watery at times, which helps with it's being shady. For most folks (US/EU) I'd say go with the KWZ Green Gold or something in that range. If you're in Japan, it may well be worth your consideration. btw, in the images it does seem that following upload they are a bit darker than my actual images. The image for MvL is really a bit lighter than shown.

Sailor Hougado Pen Gallery Nodaiko Violet For a long time I had my eye on the Hougado Pen Gallery inks, a shop located in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan on the island of Shikoku. Their original series of bespoke Sailor inks were kinds of blacks, and don’t seem to be reviewed here on FPN, except one by Lgsoltek, which has references to writing samples by saskia_madding, who didn’t like them. The shop has another series of inks based on the well known Japanese book Botchan. This book may be as famous in Japan as Huckleberry Finn is in America. The inks are colors representing some of the main characters in the book. Boochan Blue after Botchan, the main character in the novel, a mathematics instructor. Nodaiko Violet after Nodaiko, The Redshirt’s sidekick and accomplice. Yamaarashi Sepia, after Yama Arashi, the head math teacher at the school in the novel. Uranari Green, after Uranari, the school’s English teacher engaged to Madonna. The Redshirt, the “bad guy” in the novel, who himself wants Madonna’s affections. Madonna Purple, the beautiful local girl engaged to Uranari by arrangement. The information on the characters comes from a Wikipedia page about the novel Botchan and this helps explain the colors to those of us not familiar with the book. Sadly I have to have limits, and I rarely buy inks that I won’t ever use (reds), but I recently obtained some of these inks. The box top has a sticker label with a picture of the book’s author Natsume Sōseki, in thought, along with the shop name and ink color. Perhaps he’s planning the next chapter, or considering the next words in his famous novel. This is a deep rich violet similar in hue to the Quinacridone Violet pigment, especially as used in some watercolor paints. It's definitely not bright, but a muted color. While dark, it cannot be mistaken for black. It's quite wet, and in the wet Fine nib of the Edison Premiere used in this review, the line was somewhat wider. On the inkjet paper, the pen wrote more like a broad with a great deal of show through. The ink is not water resistant. I didn't have any problems writing, no hard starts, skips, nib dry out. No staining observed on the converter. Pen: Edison Premiere (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 You can see on this image how much show through there is on the inkjet paper with this wet "Fine" nib.

This is an incredibly hard ink to photograph. Artificial light does not bring out the real color, and sunlight makes it something else really, but maybe because I was trying to take pics at 3:00 Pm and not early morning. Then you have the problem of ink appearing too pink when there isn't any pink in it. Nevertheless, I really like it. I was considering old burgundy again, but I don't regret inking this one up. http://i.imgur.com/EshlLRQ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/aevU5dx.jpg I'd suggest zooming in to see the real color of the ink. Another thing with this ink is, that it is extremely free flowing. I do all my ink reviews with the same pen, an Eyedropper filler with 6ml ink capacity. Usually I do not hear the ink sloshing inside (due to barrel being completely full of ink) until i write 8-9 pages with it. But with this ink, I am hearing the ink moving inside the barrel after ~4 pages. So it's going to get used up quickly. Some Close-ups: http://i.imgur.com/sq9kINX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/ei5j48l.jpg http://i.imgur.com/QW51Cf6.jpg http://i.imgur.com/6UfyoFe.jpg There is some sheen too: http://i.imgur.com/p9SsgaH.jpg The bottle: http://i.imgur.com/FkHfldK.jpg