100717031

Long and hot weekend in Japan on the celebration of the Day of the Ocean. So, better stay inside, where temperature and humidity had some reasonable values.

Sailor organized this ink event in a department store –Isetan— in Shinjuku. As I had reported before, this ink mixer, Mr. Osamu Ishimaru, creates an ink to your taste.

He starts by asking you what type of color you wanted. He shows you a chart with tens of colors with the corresponding codes to recreate them. You choose one and then the game starts.

He creates a small sample of that initial color with eyedroppers and a watercolor mixing palette. A Sailor fude nib pen is offered to dip and write and check.


Darker, lighter, more red, more green,… The process continues until you become satisfied, or out of patience or, even, too confused to choose among all the endless small variations.

With the final color decided, he scales the sample up. Now the tools are jiggers and cocktail shakers to create 50 ml of the ink of your choice.


The final detail is to christen the new ink. Mr. Ishimaru then writes it on a label together with the numeric code to order more of that same ink through the department store or to Sailor directly. Mine is 100717031.

The final product, together with the business card of the expert mixer, Mr. Ishimaru.

All for the price of one of those shop-special inks made by Sailor—JPY 2100.

A real treat, or a terrible nightmare, for all those ink addicts in the world.

(Sailor WG Pocket Pen – Sailor 100717031)

Bruno Taut
(Shinjuku, July 19, 2010)
[labels: tinta, Japón, evento, Sailor]