Sailor (Kingdom Note) Zan’ya, or Vestiges of the Night

[lgsoltek]

This is one of the “The Colours of Time” duo released by Kingdom Note to represent the night of Shinjuku City. 残夜 Zan’ya can be roughly translated into “vestiges of the night” or “remains of the night” (many thanks to @A Smug Dill who helped with translating the name), which is the colour of dawn, when the night coming to an end. The other one is 夜幕, Nightfall, a blue-black that doesn’t really interest me.

 

According the Kingdom Note’s website: (translated by DeepL.com and edited)

 

The colours of time

A series of colours representing the time of day in Shinjuku, a metropolis that changes from day to day.

Even in Shinjuku, with its fast-moving terminal, there comes a fleeting moment of sleep.

In this series, we have chosen two night time themes, "Late Night" and "Dawn".

Vestiges of the Night

Zan'ya expresses the dawn of Shinjuku.

The motif is the crowded streets and sky of Shinjuku at dawn, when the city begins to move rapidly.

 

I bought Zan’ya mainly for the name but the colour turns out quite lovely as well. It’s a rather low saturated blue with a tint of purple/pink. The ink is mainly a light blue, but where the inks pools, it shows a purplish colour. This is more noticeable on less absorbing papers (Tomoe River, Maruman, etc.). On more absorbant papers like Rhodia, the blue is darker and more prominent, as can be seen in the writing samples below.

 

The ink has a lot of shading potential and a lovely colour range. As can be expected from an undersaturated ink, it writes slightly dry and not really lubricating, but the flow is acceptable by my rather high standard. It seems slightly water resistant.

 

I suppose Sailor will have a few similar colours given their large inventory, although I don’t have any similar ones (yet) myself. I wonder how close the new Sailor Many Nadeshiko is. Interestingly, I find Zan’ya to be a complementary colour to Nekoyanagi: Zan’ya is kind of like a Nekoyanagi with the blue part and the purple part switched places.

 

All images below are scans except the bottle shots and the close-up photos.

 

Bottle

 

 

Splash

 

 

Writing samples

(Pens: Pelican M1005 Medium, Pilot Capless Medium)

 

(Maruman)

 

 

 

(Rhodia: more absorbing, hence a darker blue colour and less colour variation)

 

 

 

 

(Tomoe River, in comparison with Sailor Manyo Nekoyanagi)

 

 

 

[lgsoltek]

Comparison

 

(splash, with Nekoyanagi and Fuji-musume/Fujisugata)

 

(other blue swabs)

 

(Midori Notebook)

 

 

 

[yazeh]

Thanks for such a detailed review....of beautiful ink, especially on Rhodia. But most of all I appreciated travelling to the land of the rising sun in a blink of an eye... どうもありがとう  🙏

 

[PithyProlix]

Thank you for the great review! While it's not a color that I would use it is certainly a very beautiful one.

(I love, love, love the last image of the page in your Midori notebook. Many wonderful colors there! For me, Herbin Vert Atlantide is just WOW here. I saw your great review a few weeks ago and I loved the color but maybe I got a bit hung up on the shimmer. It's now at the top of my list.)

[lapis]

As if I couldn't resist, this ink -- like I said about Michael R.'s Napoleonic MB -- reminds me of R&K's Blue and White Porcelain and Diamine's China Blue, although it is brighter and greener. Nice ink, great review!!

[tubular]

This ink is really appealing to me.  Thank you for reviewing it!

[MoriartyR]

It’s an attractive ink. I guess it’s too pale to use with my fine nibs, but I really like the colour.

 

As an aside, I notice on one of your swab pages that the Visconti Blue swab appears almost identical to Parker Penman Sapphire. Maybe there’s just a tiny bit more green in the Parker ink. Do you find these similar in real life, lgsoltek?

 

[aimi]

Great review. What pen did you use to write the title on the Maruman paper?  Your writing is so nice!

[A Smug Dill]

Lovely review of a lovely ink! I only wish it was more ‘gettable’. It comes across as being a paler cousin of Diamine Jalur Gemilang, but achieves the violet part with multi-hue shading instead of sheen.

[lgsoltek]

6 hours ago, MoriartyR said:

It’s an attractive ink. I guess it’s too pale to use with my fine nibs, but I really like the colour.

 

As an aside, I notice on one of your swab pages that the Visconti Blue swab appears almost identical to Parker Penman Sapphire. Maybe there’s just a tiny bit more green in the Parker ink. Do you find these similar in real life, lgsoltek?

 

You're exactly right. They are indeed very similar with PPS being ever so slightly greener. But my PPS comes from a sample. I'm not sure whether it's more concentrated due to evaporation.

 

1 hour ago, aimi said:

Great review. What pen did you use to write the title on the Maruman paper?  Your writing is so nice!

Thank you! It's still the Pelikan M1005 Medium. It's a very soft and flexible nib.

[lgsoltek]

12 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Lovely review of a lovely ink! I only wish it was more ‘gettable’. It comes across as being a paler cousin of Diamine Jalur Gemilang, but achieves the violet part with multi-hue shading instead of sheen.

 

I might get the new Manyo Nadeshiko to see whether they look similar. I think something from the Kingdom Note sea slugs or crustaceans series looks quite similar as well.

[mizgeorge]

Ohhhh  Another one. I utterly love this - and thank you for a delicious review. 

 

I'd promised myself I wouldn't even look because I can't get it, but I couldn't help myself and now I want it even more. Along with the rest of them..... 

 

 

[aimi]

13 minutes ago, lgsoltek said:

Thank you! It's still the Pelikan M1005 Medium. It's a very soft and flexible nib.

Oh wow! I didn't realize the M1000 line was *that* flexible! Thanks for responding

[Tas]

Gorgeous  🥰

[lapis]

12 hours ago, aimi said:

Oh wow! I didn't realize the M1000 line was *that* flexible! Thanks for responding

My M1000 B is very flexible. Before I got into this forum, I thought it was a "flex"-nib....

🧐

[namrehsnoom]

Great review of a beautiful ink. That purple tone adds some lovely complexity to what would otherwise be a fairly regular pale blue.

Not sure if the halo-ing is an artifact of the scans, but looking at the pictures it seems to be real. Gives a nice sharp edge to the writing. 

[TheDutchGuy]

That looks like a lovely ink! Thanks for reviewing it so thoroughly. It’s far from a retina-searing ink yet still retains lovely complexity. Might have to give this one a try.

[white_lotus]

On 4/18/2021 at 8:57 PM, lgsoltek said:

 

I might get the new Manyo Nadeshiko to see whether they look similar. I think something from the Kingdom Note sea slugs or crustaceans series looks quite similar as well.

Yes indeed! From the Jellyfish line there is Porpita porpita, a light blue/turquoise. From the Crustaceans line there is Cambaroides japonicus, a light blue version of perhaps royal blue. I have some tasks ahead today, but will try and add a reply later for comparison.

 

Edit: I've added a couple images. One a comparison between Porpita porpita and Cambaroides japonicus in two different pens. The former is in a wet Edison Mina while the latter is in a Sailor 1911, which is not as wet. The other pic shows other Sailor inks that have had their turn in the Sailor 1911. Hopefully this is helpful.

Edited May 2, 2021 by white_lotus
Added images...

[lgsoltek]

2 hours ago, white_lotus said:

Yes indeed! From the Jellyfish line there is Porpita porpita, a light blue/turquoise. From the Crustaceans line there is Cambaroides japonicus, a light blue version of perhaps royal blue. I have some tasks ahead today, but will try and add a reply later for comparison.

I look forward to your comparison. It would be most helpful! Those two inks were in my shopping cart but finally I decided the colours are probably too similar, so I bought something else.

 

There's also Glaucus atlanticus too which I think could be similar.

[white_lotus]

Yes the G. atlanticus is another in the blue range from the sea slugs. But that mini-line appeared after I stopped chasing inks, so I never acquired any of them. Though the drawings on the labels were awfully cute.

 

I did update my post with images.