Search the Community

Sailor Maruzen Nihombashi Akane (2017 re-issue) OK, let's start with some history. Long ago, perhaps around 2008, Sailor made some LE inks for the Maruzen Nihombashi store in Tokyo. Each ink was limited to 300 bottles. Fast forward to 2014. By then, the inks were long sold out but Akane had gone down in history as legendary, a grail ink, the best red Sailor had ever made. And there was never, EVAH, to be any more. So it became a mythical ink, perhaps on par with PPS, at least among fans of red inks. Well, all I can say is that sometimes pigs do fly, on rare occasions Hell does freeze over, and Sailor makes inks again that they had said they would never make again. Within the last month or so Maruzen Nihombashi had re-issues of all of their limited edition inks, including Akane. I was fortunate to obtain a bottle from a friend in Japan before they sold out. The ink comes in a Sailor vase bottle without a label. The box has a very nice label. Normally I don't like red inks, but with this one I'm in love. The flow and lubrication are excellent, the handling great, the color not too bright, the shading also great, and on the right paper there is golden sheen. Visvamitra referred to this ink as "FP nectar" and I'd have to agree. The ink is not water resistant. It is Unobtanium. 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 The iPhone did not pick up on the shading very well. It's much better than shown here.

Not so long ago a message appeared in my inbox offering some inks from Japan. Of course this excited me, as these were re-issues of previous Limited Edition inks made for the Maruzen department store in the Nihombashi district of Tokyo. These inks are only available at the store, so they are very difficult to obtain, even more so than the usual Sailor shop-exclusive inks. This particular ink is a rich, deep purple or deep grape hue. It has a heavy dye load, so it's not really very shady. But it has quite a bit of sheen on Tomoe River paper. The ink dries fairly quickly. The reason to have this ink is for it's color. It's just very rich. The flow and lubrication were very good. While taking more effort than usual to completely flush out the pen, there did not appear to be any staining on the converter. The ink is not waterproof, and really doesn't have any water resistance other than the fact of a lot of dye. This spreads everywhere when wet. I have no idea if this ink is actually available even though it was only released perhaps a month ago or so. I don't know how many bottles were produced and available, whether any announcements were made about the release, or if any bottles were left at the end of the day. The Sailor "vase" bottle was packaged in a tall Sailor box with a nice, heavy label. There was no label on the bottle itself or the cap. Apparently, only some bottles had hand-written labels. 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

Not so long ago a message appeared in my inbox offering some inks from Japan. Of course this excited me, as these were re-issues of previous Limited Edition inks made for the Maruzen department store in the Nihombashi district of Tokyo. These inks are only available at the store, so they are very difficult to obtain, even more so than the usual Sailor shop-exclusive inks. I wasn't really sure what this ink would be, other than brown in some respect. From the image of the box, it seemed like it would be a deep caramel hue, and this is not far off. The Fukurou has much less dye load than the Murasaki. It's very close to the Sailor Ishida Bungu Hakodate Curry, perhaps a little lighter than that ink. It is not as bright as the Akkerman #22 Hopjesbraun. KWZ Honey is another ink closely resembling this one in color. Most of my review was done using a Pelikan M400 (F). This particular pen I don't think of as "dry" at all, but with this ink I really felt the flow wasn't as generous as typical for Sailor inks. I did try this ink in my typical "testing" pen, and Edison Premiere, and the flow there was better, perhaps what would be called "normal" by most people. The advantage is that you get more shading this way. It's also fairly fast drying on a number of papers. It may be that one has to match this ink to the right pen. But the general handling was very good as expected. I have no idea if this ink is actually available even though it was only released perhaps a month ago or so. I don't know how many bottles were produced and available, whether any announcements were made about the release, or if any bottles were left at the end of the day. The Sailor "vase" bottle was packaged in a tall Sailor box with a nice, heavy label. There was no label on the bottle itself or the cap. Apparently, only some bottles had hand-written labels. [iPhone didn't know how to capture the color of the label, too much red.] Pen: Pelikan M400 (F) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 A very lovely color droplet. The ink is not water resistant but doesn't flow so much with running water. After a few minutes on the paper blotting does lift a majority of the ink.

As I described previously, the limited edition Sailor inks for the Maruzen Nihombashi store were reissued recently. I honestly don't know the full extent of the line but one of the inks is a water resistant blue, River Blue. This is the main distinction for this ink along with a little bit of pink sheen. It's definitely a very professional style of ink, nothing too flashy. There are not that many water-resistant, near waterproof, dye-based inks on the market, and it's a quality that some in the professional and school environment appreciate. The general handling for the ink is typical Sailor, fairly wet, problem-free across a broad range of papers. This ink is an all around pleasant ink, and I don't consider that a negative. Again, I have no idea if this ink is actually available even at the Maruzen Nihombashi store. Or whether more will be made, or when. Pen: Edison Mina (F-steel) Papers: MvL=Mohawk via Linen, TR=Tomoe River, Hij=Hammermill 28 lb inkjet, Rhodia=Rhodia 90g ivory. Camera: iPhone 7 The lighting wasn't so great on this one and the ink appears darker than in reality, not by a lot though.