Even More Sailor Inks

Shikiori –meaning “four seasons” in Japanese--  started as a series of fountain pens, ball pens, and mechanical pencils. They came in different colors and were associated –creative marketing at work— to, of course, the four seasons. One of the fountain pens in that series, a slim Professional Gear in whitish color by the name of Meigetsu, became particularly popular among young users in Japan.

Now, Sailor has enlarged this collection with a tricky marketing operation that includes some new inks.

On one hand, Sailor has rebranded the old line of Jentle inks –all those 16 inks that started in 2010 as seasonal inks— as Shikiori inks, with the additional label of “Izayoi-no Yume” (“sixteen nights”). They come in a new presentation, 20 ml inkwells, and a (much) more expensive price per milliliter. As of now, the old (50 ml inkwells) and the new packaging coexist at the shops.

The new inkwell of 20 ml, and the four new colors.

A lot of news are included on this picture. From top to bottom: On the first row, Sailor converters in assorted colors. On the second and third rows, the newly marketed Shikiori inks in their 20 ml bottles. And on the last row, the well-known Jentle inks in colors black, blue and blue-black in their new presentation of 50 ml inkwells. The same inkwell is used for the pigmented "Kiwa-guro" and "Sei-boku" inks. Finally (bottom right), the "ink reservoir" just released by Sailor to use up the ink of any bottle.

On the other hand, there are four new colors have been added to the Sailor catalog. These are the Shikiori “Tsukuyo-no Minamo” inks (something like “water surface under the moonlight”). These inks only come in 20 ml inkwells. These colors are called Yonaga (blue black or purple black). Shimoyo (black or very dark grey), Yozakura (light purple), and Yodaki (a brownish red).

The four new colors of the Shikiori line of inks. But make no mistake--these are Jentle inks with their very characteristic smell.

The catalog of the Shikiori inks. On the left, the new inks under the name "Tsukuyo-no Minamo". On the center-right, the rebranded seasonal inks now called "Izayoi-no Yume".

These Shikiori inks –20 in total— have a price of JPY 1000 per 20 ml. This implies a steep increase in the price with respect to the old presentation: JPY 50/ml versus JPY 20/ml (tax excluded). For comparison, Pilot’s Iroshizuku inks come at JPY 30/ml in the 50 ml inkwells, and at JPY 47/ml in the set of three colors in 15 ml bottles.

More marketing? Of course this is. And the final result might simply be a dramatic increase in the cost of the not-so-new inks. It might be worth to remember that this was the case some years ago when Sailor marketed the at-the-time called Seasonal Inks.

But, how much ink can the market digest? It seems that a lot!

Pelikan M200 Cognac – Diamine Graphite

Bruno Taut
Shinjuku, October 6th 2017
labels: Silor, tinta, mercado