(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
The Nagasawa Stationery Shop is located in Kobe, Japan. It carries a line of more than fifty Sailor inks, many of which are now available through Vanness Pens.
I ordered a sample of Nagasawa Kobe 21, Taisan-Ji (Temple Yellow) specifically for my prototype Omas Burkina because I like matchy inks.
Temple Yellow is a beautiful amber ink with amazing shading properties. In my ink testing, I found it to be a rich color, very wet, but definitely not waterproof.
Chromatography reveals vivid lime green and deep orange colors mixed to create this brownish-yellow.
The ink splats demonstrate a dark brown sheen.
Because the ink is very wet, it can smear easily, especially if you’re a leftie. But, once it dries it is such a gorgeous color and the shading is wonderful, especially where the ink pools.
I thought KWZ Honey (review here) might be a much cheaper alternative, but it’s much more brown than Temple Yellow. Pelikan Amber is a close match, but it is a limited edition color (out of stock everywhere I checked) and also expensive.
Kobe Temple Yellow is $30.00 for a 50ml bottle at Vanness Pens. You can get a 4ml sample for $3.00.
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