Sailor (Tsukuyo-No-Minamo) Yozakura

[lgsoltek]

Last year Sailor revamped their four season ink line, changed them into a smaller bottle thus raising steeply the per unit price, and added four more colours. (More details see here. On a side note, they seem to have changed the name of Fuji-musume into Fuji-sugata.)

These four new colours make up a series called “Tsukuyo-no-minamo” meaning moonlight water. Sailor claims to capture the different colours of a moonlit water surface during the four seasons. If Google Translate is to be trusted, along with my understanding of the Chinese characters used in Japanese, these four colours are (my imprecise interpretations should be taken with a grain of salt):

Spring: Yozakura (night cherry blossom), capturing the colours of cherry blossoms on defrosting snow.

Summer: Yodaki (night fire), capturing the colours of reflections of camp fire on the river.

Autumn: Yonaga (long night), birds on the river in a full moon night.

Winter: Shimoyo (frosted night), frosted river in moonlight.

While Yodaki is amazingly gorgeous, Yozakura from the same line is just plain horror. It’s as if Sailor was aiming to make a “Tundra Green” of their own and stick a Japanese name and concept to it. Sailor’s description of this ink is cherry blossom (sakura) on defrosting snow. True enough. It’s cherry blossom on defrosting snow then stepped on multiple times and turned into a muddy mess.

Splash

Sample

(The photos show it to be more legible than it really is. Surprisingly good water resistance. One does wonder, however, what's the point of water resistance for an ink you can barely see in the first place?)

(using a wet pen on Tomoe River)

Comparison

 

[Jan2016]

Thanks for the review! I am glad I do not have to have them all, this one I pass.

I guess that Robert Oster Claret is something like it but a nicer color

or Robert Oster Barossa Grape (darker)

[LanceSaintPaul]

Well, it certainly is dusky/dusty. And one of those that I think I like the color, but not as an ink to write with (maybe to draw with as an accent or fade...I don't draw so not for me).

[Intensity]

Very interesting, thank you! I like your literary ink description

[visvamitra]

Nope.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Somewhat reminiscent of vintage JH Poussiere de Lune, which I still have. i liked its murkiness.

[Uncial]

You should send it to Herbert

[amberleadavis]

Somebody stole the color?

Thanks LG!

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

Mh. Well. If they wanted a murky lilac... they've hit bull's eye.

 

This color would be great in correspondence and in a journal, but in every day notes? I'd depress myself too quickly..

[Chrissy]

Somewhat reminiscent of vintage JH Poussiere de Lune, which I still have. i liked its murkiness.

 

This is what I thought too.

[inkstainedruth]

This one is a maybe.... It wouldn't be my first choice, but I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. I could see it being used for something like love letters if you used a broad stub or oblique nib. And it does appear to have a lot of shading. I'd have to see how legible it was on the page.

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

This one is a maybe.... It wouldn't be my first choice, but I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. I could see it being used for something like love letters if you used a broad stub or oblique nib. And it does appear to have a lot of shading. I'd have to see how legible it was on the page.

Thanks for the review.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I forgot about stub nibs for a moment there. It would pool dark enough to be legible, and it's got enough shading to be interesting. I look forward to any writing sample with stubs.

[HalloweenHJB]

You should send it to Herbert

 

 

Quite right! I am still in search of the perfect Victorian mauve ink that eludes me. This could be a good candidate...

[lgsoltek]

 

 

Quite right! I am still in search of the perfect Victorian mauve ink that eludes me. This could be a good candidate...

 

 

I still have a tiny bit in my sample. I'll send it to you in my next letter!

[HalloweenHJB]

Don't go to any trouble or expense! But thanks very much for the offer!

[Uncial]

I see you got the letter then

[HalloweenHJB]

Right! Thanks for the recommendation!

[aurore]

This would my candidate for the worst value ink. Ugly and expensive.

[HalloweenHJB]

Ok, thanks for your opinion. I would recommend that you not buy it —given that you find it so objectionable. The rest of us will make up our own minds about it.

[aurore]

Thank you for the recommendation, I will gladly follow it.