thINKthursday
Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki
Warm up with the fiery, bright orange of Iroshizuku fuyu-gaki.
Fuyu-gaki translates to persimmon, and it is an appropriate name for the bright orange color. The sometimes tart, sometimes sweet fruit is much more popular in Japan, but we enjoy the fruits of its inspiration with this ink. Iroshizuku ink is produced by Pilot, and comes in a beautiful 50ml glass bottle. The bottle has an ingenious dip in the bottom where your nib can rest while filling. The price has recently been reduced to $20 which makes it all the more attractive. This review was done with a Sailor Pro Gear F, Lamy Safari B and on Rhodia blank No. 18 Paper.
Fuyu-gaki is a highly saturated red-orange that appears fairly uniform in a fine and broad nib. The ink doesn’t shade much leading to its consistent fiery orange glow. The ink is appropriately named after the Persimmon fruit which has its same bright color. Fuyu-gaki is a matte color, although its vibrancy makes it appear to jump off the page.
As with other Iroshizuku inks, fuyu-gaki performed very well. It had good flow with no feathering or bleedthrough on Rhodia paper. Dry times were fairly normal at 20-30 seconds and it had low shading. The ink had no water resistance so cleaning was easy.
There is nothing subtle about fuyu-gaki. The ink looks even more vibrant in person than it appears on the screen. It would be the perfect ink for making an impression or correcting a paper.
As with any ink review, the pen, paper, and person doing the writing will influence the way the ink looks. If you’re not sure about a color, try a sample to see if it’s the one for you.
Ink it Up!
Chris
New to thINKthursday? No problem – I explain the formatting of my reviews here.