I won't even bother beginning this with "I don't need more ink" because that's a given. However, I don't need more ink. Take Note received the second set of Sailor Manyo inks not too long ago and I happened to be there and I happened to see the Sakura and I happened to think it would be great to get a bottle to check it out. For science. For research. For knowledge. For you.
I am so noble.
A cherry blossom is a flower of many trees of genus Prunus. The most well-known species is the Japanese cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is commonly called sakura. Japan has a wide variety of cherry blossoms (sakura); well over 200 cultivars can be found there. The following species, hybrids, and varieties are used for sakura. (Thanks, Wikipedia)
I didn't know that there were so many colors of cherry blossoms but it makes sense now. At first glance, this ink was far more peachy than I expected and I was trying to figure it out. White flowers, pink flowers, cascading pinks, well there are just so many more colors than just pink! As such, I can see that this Sakura ink is special and is as delicate and beautiful as the variety of flowers it represents.
The bottle and presentation are simple and elegant, with a sensible design that makes larger fountain pens easy to ink up. The shape allows for easy storage and the glass bottle itself is a looker. I really love ink bottles that have a thick clear base.
I think this ink looks superb in any nib. It's saturated enough to be legible in finer nibs, though I'd avoid needlepoints in general, and it shines in broader and wider nibs. It's quite well-behaved, it's easy to clean, and doesn't crust up on the bottle quickly.
Compared to world's best ink - P. W. Akkerman Gourmet Pens Pink, obviously - Sakura seems even less pink but if you put it up against a true orange, it shines as a pink! I figured we could compare it to the second best pink, which is Montblanc Pink. I think it's a really neat color and does some interesting things!
A selection of pink inks to look at! It's really hard to capture so many pinks without one of them changing the color for all the others but I hope you are able to make it out well enough. The ink shows some very neat shading - something like a peachy yellow to a definite soft pink sakura. It even has some water resistance, which appears to wash away the peachy tones and leaves a light pink behind.
Boy, those other two pinks sure look good, don't they? If you need a bottle of World's Greatest Pink Ink, which is the colloquial name for my collaboration ink with PW Akkerman in The Hague (the only Akkerman that makes and sells these inks), read on. It comes in the awesome fluted bottle with the nifty marble and it's sexy and I picked the pink. You can get it straight from Akkerman, Vanness Pens, Lemur Ink, Bookbinders Design, and Laywine's in Canada.
- Side note: PWA has have provided a discount code - 10% off using GOURMET10 (excludes Montblanc, sadly, their Akkerman inks, discounted products, unfortunately) However. There's a lot of other goodness:
Alas.
I hope this has been helpful and thank you for reading. If you enjoy and/or appreciate this type of information and you want to lend your continued support, please do check me out on Patreon. You can pledge your support for as little as $1. You are in no way obligated to do so, of course. I appreciate your readership and your support so much, so thank you!
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