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Sailor and Kingdom Note have been collaborating on inks for some time now, five years I think. This year (2017) they started a new series called "Green Experience" which like the other series such as "Insects" and "Fungi" consists of five inks. Two cover green plants from Southeast Asia, and three are based on green plants in Japan. This is a fairly broad category and could cover the many many shades of green, but it seems this line focuses on the slightly bluish greens found in nature. KN and Sailor have chosen some very interesting shades. This shade perfectly captures the color and tonality of the named lichen, Parmotrema tinctorum. So it is a bit on the lighter side of the scale. Actually a good bit on the lighter side. But it is still quite readable and in a wider, wetter nib can be quite interesting I think. It has excellent shading, and for me, this quality is so much more important than sheen. Plus this ink is waterproof, or nearly so, at least with absorbent paper. This site has a great page on Parmotrema tinctorum, and some great pics of this lichen. The ink really does caputre this very well. http://eol.org/pages/195278/overview So this is a very interesting ink, and not totally unobtanium (i.e., you must travel to Japan or have friends that live or travel there). Cost about $35 depending on exchange rates, shipping costs, etc. The simple chromatography shows how muted this ink really is, and it has lots of yellow in the mix, unlike what I said at the top of the page. Nothing lifted, nothing washed away. Impressive.

As you may know, Sailor makes custom inks for shops in Japan. Kingdom Note is one such shop in Tokyo. They have started a series this year based on the famous early 11th century Japanese novel Tale of Genji. The usual series of KN inks comprise five inks, but this series already has eight inks. It's unknown how many inks are planned, or how long they'll be available. Perhaps someone in Japan has inquired about these matters and could comment. This is a golden brown ink named Monogatari which is according to Wiki a traditional Japanese literary form in which the Tale of Genji was written. The translation of the Japanese by Google on the page for this ink is quite confusing, and it's very unclear what the underlying meaning for this ink might be. I think the iPhone7 made the ink appear a bit darker than it is in reality. It's a little darker than Sailor Ishida Bungu Hakodate Curry and Sailor Maruzen Athena Fukurou, brighter but nearly the same value as Noodler's (FPH) Old Dutch Colony Sepia. The ink has very nice shading, no sheen that I can see, some water resistance. No staining at all on the Pelikan. Excellent handling as expected from Sailor. Many browns fall into the red-brown range so it's nice to see a golden brown. This is one that is fairly golden, but not yellow. Quite readable. For some reason we get pretty accurate color here...

Sailor makes inks for select shops carrying their pens and standard inks. One of those shops named Kingdom Note has a line of inks after Japanese wild birds, insects, and fungi. They have been sought after by ink cognoscenti to the detriment of their pocketbooks and wallets. Many of the inks may well be the best Sailor has produced. This ink is named after a particular Japanese beetle known as the "Rhinoceros beetle". It is sometimes sold as a pet in Japan and other parts of Asia. If I remember correctly it only lives for about 4 months or so as an actual beetle. They live about a year underground in larval form. The shell of the beetle is a red brown color, and this ink attempts to capture that hue. From photos I have seen, it appears that they have succeeded. The color is definitely brown, with a strong red, red-violet undertone. The handling as with so many Sailor inks is on the juicy, wet side which I prefer. On Mohawk via Linen paper. On Hammermill 28lb Inkjet paper. I definitely like this ink. EDIT: here is the pic of the waterfastness test:

As many, if not most, people know, Sailor makes custom or bespoke inks for specialty shops in Japan. Some of these, such as Bungbox or Kobe, are readily available online even from US vendors such as Vanness or Anderson Pens. Others are available online in Japan. Many others are only available through in person purchase at the shop. The Kingdom Note inks are available online in Japan, and through purchasers known as "forwarders" one is able to obtain these inks, though at additional cost. Each year KN works with the Sailor master ink maker to produce a new set of inks for the shop. This year it appears the title of the series is "Green Experience" and it focuses on some green plants native to Asia and Japan. This ink is based on the Ostrich Fern. Oftentimes KN has used the scientific name for a species, but in this case a common name has been chosen. Matteuccia struthiopteris is the scientific name. The drawing on the labels show a fairly common fern, and here in New York, this is known as the fiddlehead fern. It is a somewhat muted, blue-leaning green. It's quite wet. Very good lubrication. Show through and bleed through were not problems. The images I took really darkened the text, far beyond how it appears in actuality. It shades quite well. There really isn't much sheen, and what might be there seems to serve more to darken the dark elements of the shading. The ink has a very pleasant color, not at all grass green, and not bright. But not heavily grayed, you can still see a strong green. I tried to show a comparison with the Japanese Beech ink, which is near black, with this one, but the iPhone really just wanted to make them both black. Wrong! Oh, computers. The ink is fairly water resistant. Given the amount of ink laid down, a great deal stayed behind both on blotting as well as a 4 oz pour of water. Quite legible afterwards.

Each year KN works with the Sailor master ink maker to produce a new set of inks for the shop. This year it appears the title of the series is "Green Experience" and it focuses on some green plants native to Asia and Japan. This ink is one of five in the series, and that number is fairly common in the KN series. This is the darkest ink of the bunch, and one of the darkest green inks in my collection. It is darker than Sailor Miruai and Tokiwa-matsu, darker then KWZ Midnight Green by a bit, darker than Diamine Deep Dark Green (Cult Pens). It is near black, but a close inspection, and any comparison with a real black or another green shows the ink to be green. Unfortunately the iPhone seems to want to make all the writing just black. I tried adjusting various settings with minimal success. Even though the ink is dark it can still be shady; it all depends on the paper and pen. On Tomoe River it is quite dramatic, more subtle on the Mohawk paper. The only problem I had was a little bit of show through and some pin points of bleed through on the absorbent Mohawk via Linen. So that's one thing to watch out for. Given the high dye load, those who like to dilute their inks may be able to explore some alternatives in hue with this ink. Unfortunately the writing looks just black in the images; perhaps I'll try again on a different day with different lighting. It is very water resistant. Very good flow and lubrication.

In May 2014 Kingdom Note came out with a new line of specialty inks from Sailor based on Mushrooms. At that time they were relatively easy to obtain, but only two of the inks were colors that appealed to me then, so I passed on the others. Recently several became available again as they sometimes do, and I decided to get them. I've learned that the little color circle on the box is only the most general idea of the ink color. The five inks of this series are Amanita muscaria (red) Entoloma virescens (light blue) Stropharia aeruginosa (green) Mycena pura (pink) Trametes versicolor (dark blue) I'd reviewed the two blue inks earlier and the links are above. Normally I don't buy red inks as I rarely have any use for them, they're often too bright, or dry. Occasionally I've bought some Noodler's reds mostly for the label (Park Red, Berning Red) but they rarely make the rotation. But this one seemed different and I decided to give this one a try since I was ordering other KN inks as well. This ink didn't disappoint. This particular pen has a fairly fine nib and with this ink produced a very nice line. The flow was wet enough, not dry, reasonable dry times, and no problems in handling. And I liked the color. I don't know how it looks in a wide nib. There's a good amount of pink in this red and that's probably why I like it. Pen: Pelikan M201 (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 Depending on the angle of your screen, the ink may appear much darker than real life. The original pictures seem to be darker than my review pages where the writing is simply darker than the page. The ink color approaches a strawberry shade more than the Coca-cola red. I wouldn't say it's a red-orange color either like the box implies.

You should probably view this review with extreme caution. First it's for a Sailor ink. Second it's a Japanese exclusive ink for the Kingdom Note shop. So this means it's not readily available here in the US or anywhere else outside Japan. You should probably just use the "back" button on your browser now and save yourself all the aggravation of wanting an ink you probably can't get. I presume if you've gotten this far you are one of the hardcore Sailor ink lovers. And while a color may deter you, pretty much anything else won't. The salivating emoji will take control and have its way with you. How you view this ink will depend on the pen used. In a fine pen the ink was very interesting. Loading up a wetter pen actually wasn't an improvement. This is contrary to what you might expect. The ink has a most unusual dye combination. It appears the yellow one is less water-resistant while the brown is more so. A very unique ink I think. Pen: Edison Beaumont (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

Sailor Kingdom Note "Crustacean series" Macrocheira kampferi (Japanese Spider Crab) Thanks to an inky friend in Japan I've received a sample of this ink from the Kingdom Notes' Crustacean series. Most English-speaking people refer to this ink as "Japanese Spider Crab," but the label actually uses the scientific name given above. Regardless of the name, this is a muted orange ink, and somewhat desaturated as are many of the inks in this Crustacean series. It is drier than the inks in the previous Bird and Insect series, but that's just by comparison. I doubt anyone would actually say this ink is "dry" though I presume if you have a dry pen, this might not be the best ink choice. Most of the orange inks I have are either the bright, retina-searing kind (Sailor Kin-mokusei), the dark blood orange kind (Cult Pens Deep Dark Orange), and a couple others that might be more normal (KWZ Orange, KWZ Grapefruit). This ink is somewhat between KWZ Orange and Sailor Style Dee Delta Sonezaki Orange, being a little closer to the latter. If you don't know the Sonezaki Orange, it's similar to Cult Deeps Deep Dark Orange, but a bit lighter. The ink is drier than some of the super wet Sailor inks; this was common with the Crustacean series as was their less saturated color. But that doesn't mean the inks were light such as certain S-K inks, just that they were more normal in their saturation, especially compared with the others. Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 The problem I see with the images is they didn't really capture the muted orange character of the ink. They all look too red to me, and don't have that "chalky" appearance, they look too saturated compared to the actual writing. The Waterfastness test actually seems pretty decent representative of the color, though perhaps a little too pink. This is closer to the "chalky" appearance the ink has, but perhaps with too much pink. I don't know what happened on the one droplet with the weird circles, maybe some flaw in the paper towel composition.

Kingdom Notes second series of bespoke inks from Sailor was themed "Wild Birds". This was back in 2013 I believe. When I fell down the rabbit hole of bespoke inks I was fairly selective and for whatever reasons I didn't get many from these series, except of course, Lidth's jay. Recently an inky friend in Japan sent me a couple KN samples so I could review them. Falco peregrinus is one. Normally gray inks don't interest me even though they probably shade better than black inks, but I always prefer the latter as they are decisive. Black is an ink for serious writing and correspondence. To me, black always looks so right on the page while grays typically make me shudder and cringe, especially those that look like pencil. If I wanted to write with a pencil I would have used a pencil! Anyway, this gray does not suffer from that deficiency. In my wet Edison Premiere, this wet ink writes very dark, dark enough to be near black. It's a kind of "cool" black as I see a little bit of purple/violet in the dye mix. I was thinking when I asked for a sample of this ink that I wouldn't like it because it's gray, but in fact I do. It's very wet, very saturated. Perhaps in a dry pen it might become more "gray-like". 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

In May 2014 Kingdom Note came out with a new line of specialty inks from Sailor based on Mushrooms. At that time they were relatively easy to obtain, but only two of the inks were colors that appealed to me then, so I passed on the others. Recently several became available again as they sometimes do, and I decided to get them. I've learned that the little color circle on the box is only the most general idea of the ink color. The five inks of this series are Amanita muscaria (red) Entoloma virescens (light blue) Stropharia aeruginosa (green) Mycena pura (pink) Trametes versicolor (dark blue) I'd reviewed the two blue inks earlier and the links are above. Pink is not a color I usually buy at all. Far too many are either Barbie-pink, or hot bubble gum pink, or something that completely lacks any subtlety at all. But the color/writing sample at KN hinted that this wasn't like that. I'm glad I included it in my basket as it is a very nice complex, dusky pink, that soft kind of pink you see in sunsets, and perhaps on a certain mushroom. The ink is dark enough for writing, and I've used it a few times in making my own notes about other topics. I actually found myself reaching for it over saturated blues, murky greens, deep purples I have inked in pens. The ink is quite shady in a drier pen. In very wet pens you get less of that, but still a dusky line. The ink has some water resistance that may be a plus for some. The hue is similar to the Noodler's Suffragist Carmine, but it is not as bright as that ink by a good margin. There is no sheen that I can see. This is an interesting pink I think, one appropriate for those who appreciate the subtle. Unfortunately, this ink is sold out again now at Kingdom Note. It seems these are restocked periodically but not on any predictable schedule. I got lucky. Pen: Aurora Ipsilon Deluxe (M-14kt), vintage Drexel syringe-filler with no name nib Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

So far over the past five years Kingdom Note has collaborated with Sailor to produce a thematic group of inks exclusive for the shop. In 2015, the series was on Crustaceans of Japan, or more specifically, the waters of Japan. Cambaroides japonicus Birgus latro Marsupenaeus japonicus Uca arcuata Macrocheira kaempferi Originally I was only able to acquire a couple of these, and recently these inks came back in stock, except for the M. kaempferi, and I was able to get two more. I've previously reviewed two of these inks, the C. japonicus and the U. arcuata, The links are above in the list. This review is for the B. latro, the Coconut Crab. The ink is a mid-to-dark value brown that does not lean red, with excellent shading, fast dry times, and is nearly waterproof. The ink sometimes appears close to black. In that regard it is similar to Sailor's Do-you, but the coloring is different here, and the value typically lighter. The lubrication is exceptionally smooth. The ink comes in the standard Sailor "jar" bottle. The Wikipedia page for this species provides interesting information about the creature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_crab Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

So far over the past five years Kingdom Note has collaborated with Sailor to produce a thematic group of inks exclusive for the shop. In 2015, the series was on Crustaceans of Japan, or more specifically, the waters of Japan. Cambaroides japonicus Birgus latro Marsupenaeus japonicus Uca arcuata Macrocheira kaempferi Originally I was only able to acquire a couple of these, and recently these inks came back in stock, except for the M. kaempferi, and I was able to get two more. I've previously reviewed two of these inks, the C. japonicus and the U. arcuata, The links are above in the list. This review is for the M. japonicus, the Japanese Tiger Prawn. The ink is a mid-value brown that does not lean red, with excellent shading, reasonable dry times, and is nearly waterproof. The ink comes in the standard Sailor "jar" bottle. The two earlier series of "Insects" and "Wild Birds" were very rich inks with heavy dye loads. The "Crustacean" series veers away from that going for more moderate dye loads, excellent shading, and perhaps some other interesting qualities, in this case, water resistance. The handling is fairly typical for Sailor inks with above average flow and lubrication. Originally I was one of the complainers when Sailor switched from heavily saturated inks to this new style. While I personally want an ink to be readable, so I don't want it to be too light, I find these new inks to be perfectly acceptable and quite nice. Of course the difficulty outside Japan is obtaining these inks. Even if they are in stock, most of these shops do not ship outside Japan. So they are not impossible to obtain, but more effort and expense is required. Pen: Pelikan M400 (M) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 And while we're on the Japanaese Tiger Prawn, here is some scientific reading for you. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848605004163

Quite a while back around August 2015 I worked on this review but apparently never finished it, nor posted it. So here it is! Even though I don't have an ink droplet image as the pen I just filled with this ink is an Edison Beaumont pneumatic filler, so kind of hard to do ink droplets. The ink goes down a rich deep blue, then dries to a more muted blue. Some might dislike that effect and prefer the color when wet. There is lots of red sheen on Tomoe River paper. Pen: Pelikan M400 (F), Edison Beaumont (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7

Dorcus hopei binodulosus = Japanese Stag Beetle I thought I'd reviewed this ink a long time ago, but I never did. So here it is now. This ink is for lovers of black inks. It is one very seductive bug. In a number of Asian countries these creatures are kept as pets. However they only live for four months as a beetle: their larval stage lasts about a year. This is a black with good shading. On TR is has amazing green sheen, especially when wet. I'm very happy I have a bottle of this. It seems like there could be some water resistance, but as always take care in that regard. The color ink droplet is amazing. Pen: Edison Premiere (M-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 The writing sample on MvL is from this article at NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4022812/ Not really showing the shading... but looks nice anyway. This poem is from the website of the American Poetry Review, you can read the full poem at this link. http://aprweb.org/poems/this-did-not-happen !!!!!

This is a series of ink reviews "blues reviews" covering nearly all the blue inks in my collection that I haven't yet reviewed. The papers used are Mohawk via Linen, Hammermill 28lb inkjet, and Tomoe River. Sorry, but I didn't do any waterfastness test, or chromatography.

Some time last year Kingdom Note came out with two new lineups of bespoke inks from Sailor. They were the "Jellyfish" and "Crustaceans" lines and these pretty much replaced their previous collections of "Wild Birds," "Mushrooms," and "Insects". This was at a time when obtaining these Sailor inks became difficult for even those living in Japan. Some stores discontinued selling online, or even began limiting purchasers to just one or two bottles of ink, and another chose to raise prices over 100%. Kingdom Note is not one of those stores, but availability of their inks has been quite limited, and some have simply remained "SOLD OUT", perhaps seemingly forever. That's the way the sushi roll falls apart. The five inks in the "Crustacean" series were/are: Cambaroides japonica "Zarigani" — a blue ink Uca arcuata "Fiddler crab" — a light olive green ink Birgus latro "Coconut crab" — a dark brown ink Marsupenaeus japonicus "Prawn"— a light brown ink Macrocheira kaempferi "Giant crab" — a light red ink This species is listed as "threatened" in Japan. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/153751/0 Recently I decided to check the Kingdom Note site, and found a few of these inks and their Crustacean cousins available. The writing samples shown there are decidedly unimpressive, seemingly using a XF nib. This would probably be fine if you were going to write Japanese characters, but many chasers of ink seem to want to use it in medium to broad to stub nibs and go to town with it. So there were few takers here when they came out. But I decided to take the plunge. Only the blue and light olive green inks were available. This is a review of the blue ink. Just fyi, the stash of this ink KN had is sold out, but it is listed as "in negotiations". Perhaps that means they're trying to have Sailor make more. One can always hope so. The ink now comes in a standard Sailor Jentle box with a custom sticker pasted on the front. The bottle is standard Sailor Jentle with the dumb insert. The images of the box and bottle taken with iPhone4. As always, I test inks on papers I use and these are Mohawk via Linen=MvL, Hammermill 28 lb inkjet paper=Hij, and Tomoe River=TR. The images of the reviews taken with a Nikon Coolpix P50, so a bit dated, but it seems to do better than the iPhone in representing the ink color. I couldn't find anything wrong with the ink but it didn't excite me. From my original notes I liked the Jellyfish blue more. Other than the waterfastness of this ink, I'm sure there are inks with the same look as this one. The ink blot of a paper towel indicates that this is a single dye formulation. The waterfastness test showed this ink to be completely water resistant. Which was a great surprise.

Some time last year Kingdom Note came out with two new lineups of bespoke inks from Sailor. They were the "Jellyfish" and "Crustaceans" lines and these pretty much replaced their previous collections of "Wild Birds," "Mushrooms," and "Insects". This was at a time when obtaining these Sailor inks became difficult for even those living in Japan. Some stores discontinued selling online, or even began limiting purchasers to just one or two bottles of ink, and another chose to raise prices over 100%. Kingdom Note is not one of those stores, but availability of their inks has been quite limited, and some have simply remained "SOLD OUT", perhaps seemingly forever. That's the way the sushi roll falls apart. The five inks in the "Jellyfish" series were/are: Chrysaora helvola "Yanagikurage" — an orange ink Porpita porpita — a blue ink Thysanostoma thysanura "Purple jellyfish" — a purple/red-violet ink Mastigias papua "Kite jellyfish"— a pink ink Aequorea victoria — a light green ink Recently I decided to check the Kingdom Note site, and found a few of these inks and their Crustacean cousins available. The writing samples shown there are decidedly unimpressive, seemingly using a XF nib. This would probably be fine if you were going to write Japanese characters, but many chasers of ink seem to want to use it in medium to broad to stub nibs and go to town with it. So there were few takers here when they came out. But I decided to take the plunge. The orange, blue, and purple inks were available. This is a review of the purple/red-violet ink. Just fyi, the stash of this ink KN had is sold out, but it is listed as "in negotiations". Perhaps that means they're trying to have Sailor make more. One can always hope so. The ink now comes in a standard Sailor Jentle box with a custom sticker pasted on the front. The bottle is standard Sailor Jentle with the dumb insert. The images of the box and bottle taken with iPhone4. As always, I test inks on papers I use and these are Mohawk via Linen=MvL, Hammermill 28 lb inkjet paper=Hij, and Tomoe River=TR. The images of the reviews taken with a Nikon Coolpix P50, so a bit dated, but it seems to do better than the iPhone in representing the ink color. My basic view is I liked this ink and was pleasantly surprised. But some people are probably going to hate this color. It's not really a purple as in a blue with a lot of red in it, but a magenta pushed towards violet. This ink didn't seem to be "less saturated" per se than other Sailor inks, in fact it seemed quite saturated. On the MvL the blue shows up more, but on the other papers the magenta dominates. In fact, it's almost identical to KWZI Violet #2. It's certainly a very reasonable good ink with very good flow and lubrication, some shading from light to darker orange. A bit slow drying on the MvL, but quite fast on the inkjet paper. I didn't notice any problems with hard starts, and the like, and it cleaned out of the syringe-filler pen I used quite easily. So I'm glad I got this ink and am not disappointed. The ink seems made up of two dyes, a turquoise/light blue, and a magenta. It's quite possible that under the right conditions you may see some sheen. The papers and pens I use don't typically bring that out. A lot of ink was laid down and while some washed away, there was much that stayed in place. The ink seems to be water resistant to some degree, more so than many other Sailor inks.

Some time last year Kingdom Note came out with two new lineups of bespoke inks from Sailor. They were the "Jellyfish" and "Crustaceans" lines and these pretty much replaced their previous collections of "Wild Birds," "Mushrooms," and "Insects". This was at a time when obtaining these Sailor inks became difficult for even those living in Japan. Some stores discontinued selling online, or even began limiting purchasers to just one or two bottles of ink, and another chose to raise prices over 100%. Kingdom Note is not one of those stores, but availability of their inks has been quite limited, and some have simply remained "SOLD OUT", perhaps seemingly forever. That's the way the sushi roll falls apart. The five inks in the "Jellyfish" series were/are: Chrysaora helvola "Yanagikurage" — an orange ink Porpita porpita — a blue ink Thysanostoma thysanura "Purple jellyfish" — a purple/red-violet ink Mastigias papua "Kite jellyfish"— a pink ink Aequorea victoria — a light green ink Technically this species isn't really a jellyfish, though it looks like one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita_porpita Recently I decided to check the Kingdom Note site, and found a few of these inks and their Crustacean cousins available. The writing samples shown there are decidedly unimpressive, seemingly using a XF nib. This would probably be fine if you were going to write Japanese characters, but many chasers of ink seem to want to use it in medium to broad to stub nibs and go to town with it. So there were few takers here when they came out. But I decided to take the plunge. The orange, blue, and purple inks were available. This is a review of the blue ink. Just fyi, the stash of this ink KN had is sold out, but it is listed as "in negotiations". Perhaps that means they're trying to have Sailor make more. One can always hope so. The ink now comes in a standard Sailor Jentle box with a custom sticker pasted on the front. The bottle is standard Sailor Jentle with the dumb insert. The images of the box and bottle taken with iPhone4. As always, I test inks on papers I use and these are Mohawk via Linen=MvL, Hammermill 28 lb inkjet paper=Hij, and Tomoe River=TR. The images of the reviews taken with a Nikon Coolpix P50, so a bit dated, but it seems to do better than the iPhone in representing the ink color. My basic view is I liked this ink and was pleasantly surprised. The color is almost identical with the Sailor Kingdom Note Entoloma virescens from the "Mushroom/Fungi" series. It's certainly a very good ink with reasonable flow and lubrication, though it actually seemed a little bit drier than usual for many Sailor inks, but I've found that light blues and turquoise inks can tend to be dry, some times agonizingly so. That's not the case here, but it's slightly drier than the other two jellyfish inks I've reviewed. This was more noticeable on the inkjet paper which is a drier paper in general. There's some shading here, but not dramatically so. I didn't notice any problems with hard starts, etc, and the ink easily cleaned out of the two pens I tried. The ink appears to be made from a single dye. This is the second ink in this series that seems somewhat water resistant. Some ink did wash away but a solid amount remained on the paper.

Some time last year Kingdom Note came out with two new lineups of bespoke inks from Sailor. They were the "Jellyfish" and "Crustaceans" lines and these pretty much replaced their previous collections of "Wild Birds," "Mushrooms," and "Insects". This was at a time when obtaining these Sailor inks became difficult for even those living in Japan. Some stores discontinued selling online, or even began limiting purchasers to just one or two bottles of ink, and another chose to raise prices over 100%. Kingdom Note is not one of those stores, but availability of their inks has been quite limited, and some have simply remained "SOLD OUT", perhaps seemingly forever. That's the way the sushi roll falls apart. The five inks in the "Jellyfish" series were/are: Chrysaora helvola "Yanagikurage" — an orange ink Porpita porpita — a blue ink Thysanostoma thysanura "Purple jellyfish" — a purple/red-violet ink Mastigias papua "Kite jellyfish"— a pink ink Aequorea victoria — a light green ink Recently I decided to check the Kingdom Note site, and found a few of these inks and their Crustacean cousins available. The writing samples shown there are decidedly unimpressive, seemingly using a XF nib. This would probably be fine if you were going to write Japanese characters, but many chasers of ink seem to want to use it in medium to broad to stub nibs and go to town with it. So there were few takers here when they came out. But I decided to take the plunge. The orange, blue, and purple inks were available. This is a review of the orange ink, my first orange! Just fyi, the stash of this ink KN had is sold out, but it is listed as "in negotiations". Perhaps that means they're trying to have Sailor make more. One can always hope so. The ink now comes in a standard Sailor Jentle box with a custom sticker pasted on the front. The bottle is standard Sailor Jentle with the dumb insert. The images of the box and bottle taken with iPhone4. As always, I test inks on papers I use and these are Mohawk via Linen=MvL, Hammermill 28 lb inkjet paper=Hij, and Tomoe River=TR. The images of the reviews taken with a Nikon Coolpix P50, so a bit dated, but it seems to do better than the iPhone in representing the ink color. My basic view is I liked this ink. I'd stayed away from orange inks fearing they would be overly bright or too light. This ink definitely was neither. This ink didn't seem to be "less saturated" per se than other Sailor inks. It's certainly a very reasonable good ink with very good flow and lubrication, some shading from light to darker orange. A bit slow drying on the MvL, but quite fast on the inkjet paper. I didn't notice any problems with hard starts, and the like, and it cleaned out of the syringe-filler pen I used quite easily. So I'm glad I got this ink and am not disappointed. ps I forgot to do a waterfastness test on this ink. Sorry. The poem here is from Robert Burns. From the ink drop on a paper towel it appears that the ink is made up of an orange and either a yellow, or a very light yellow-green. It's quite hard to tell. I think a yellow even though in the picture you could imagine it's yellow-green.

Kingdom Note is japanese shop that tempts westerners with their choice of Sailor inks grouped into series inspired by nature: Insects, Birds and fungi. Fungi series consists of five colors. I've received samples of three of them so you can expect to see almost full line in coming days. Amanita Muscaria Entoloma Virescens Mycena Pura Stropharia Aeruginosa Trametes Versicolor Trametes versicolor called also Turkey tail is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world. Meaning 'of several colours', versicolor reliably describes this mushroom found in different colors. By example, due to its resembling multiple colors in the tail of wild turkey, T. versicolor is commonly called turkey tail. Sailor interprets this color as blue-black. Well, recently I'ver came to enjoy some blue blacks (especially Robert Oster's Blue Night) but this one is average. Of course behaviour is rather nice, it won't cause any suffering to your pens nor blledthrough / feathering on cheaper papers. If you spill the water on notes taken with Tremetes versicolor, you'll still be able to read them after the accident. That's all fine but we already have it elsewhere for less money (unless of course you leave in Japan, then you're happy and can enjoy this inks for reasonable price). If you love blue-blacks and want to collect them all you can try this one. It won't however stand out from the crowd. To be honest I find Lamy Blue/Black more interesting. Ink Splash Drops of ink on kitchen towel Software ID Tomoe River - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B Leuchtturm 1917 - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B Clairefontaine - Visconti van Gogh, M Oxford - Hero 5028, stub 1,9 Water resistance (30 minutes of soaking) Comparison

Kingdom Note is japanese shop that tempts westerners with their choice of Sailor inks grouped into series inspired by nature: Insects, Birds and fungi. Fungi series consists of five colors. I've received samples of three of them so you can expect to see almost full line in coming days. Amanita Muscaria Entoloma Virescens Mycena Pura Stropharia Aeruginosa Tremetes Versicolor Entoloma Virescens, commonly known as the Sky Blue mushroom, is a rare of mushroom with deep blue coloring. Sailor interprets this color as, well, strange hue of blue. It's dirty blue turquoise maybe? The ink behaves well but I'm not really fond of the color. Ink Splash Drops of ink on kitchen towel Software ID Tomoe River - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B Leuchtturm 1917 - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B Oxford, Hero 5028, stub 1,9 + some no-name vintage with EF nib Comparison

Kingdom Note is japanese shop that tempts westerners with their choice of Sailor inks grouped into series inspired by nature: Insects, Birds and fungi. Fungi series consists of five colors. I've received samples of three of them so you can expect to see almost full line in coming days. Amanita Muscaria Entoloma Virescens Mycena Pura Stropharia Aeruginosa Trametes Versicolor Mycena Pura, commonly known as the lilac bonnet, is a species of mushroom in the family Mycenaceae. First called Agaricus prunus in 1794 by Christian Hendrik Persoon, it was assigned its current name in 1871 by German Paul Kummer. Sailor interprets this color as dirty pink. I'm not pink ink fan although this one is tolerable - it's subtle and, probably, to light to use for writing. Ink Splash Drops of ink on kitchen towel Software ID Tomoe River - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B Leuchtturm 1917 - Kaweco Sport Classic, eyedropper, B

In case the title gets truncated this is Sailor Ishida bungu Hakodate twilight vs Kingdom Note Garrulous lidthi vs Kingdom Note Entoloma virescens vs Bungbox Ozaemaki Ocean.

Mods: I'm not sure if this should be here, but it didn't quite seem like a classified. I bought a couple bottles of Kingdom Note 5th Anniversary Ink back when they were all the rage. However, I keep all my ink in Nalgene bottles. From some of the talk in other fora, it seems like these might be worth selling (ebay? here?) Anyone with opinions? Thanks, greg

http://www.sheismylawyer.com/album/Ink/slides/2015-10-17-19-00-04.jpg