August Inks

Somehow this was expected… Platinum released the Mix Free set of inks in March, Sailor followed up with the new selection of colors after a whole year of limited seasonal inks, and Pilot was not doing anything on this active field. Actually, the very profitable line of Iroshizuku inks had not been changed for about a year… until this month of August.


Four new colors have just been added in brown, pink, purple and green. They come in poetic names whose translation is not always straight forward:


Ina-ho (稲穂): ear of rice. A brown ink.


Kosumosu (秋桜): cosmos; it refers to the plant Cosmos bipinnatus. A pink ink.


Murasaki-shikibu (紫式部): this name is very ambiguous. On one hand that is the name of the author of the Tale of Genji. On the other, it is also the name of a couple of flowers: wisteria (a whole genus in the Fabaceae family) and purple gromwell (Callicarpa japonica). Finally, the word Murasaki speaks of purple or violet color by itself. Of course, this is a purple ink.


Chiku-rin (竹林): bamboo woods. A green tonality.

Their price remains stable: JPY 1500 (plus taxes). That is about EUR 13.5, that despite the current strength of the Japanese currency is very well below the outrageous EUR 33 these ink cost in some places in Europe.

(Colors on the pictures are, needless to say, just approximate).

(Esterbrook J Double Jewel – Diamine Teal)

Bruno Taut
August 26th, 2011
[labels: Pilot, tinta, mercado]