Maruzen Athena 2020 Pen Fair

The Maruzen 2020 Pen Fair started on March 4th this year, but was much smaller than previous years due to COVID. Jacob from fudefan.com was very kind and sent me samples of the three show inks for this year, Doukan, Ginkan and Kinkan.

Swabs:

Left to right: Doukan is a pale peach orange, Ginkan is a light grey and Kinkan is a mustard yellow.

Writing samples:

Let's take a look at how the ink behaves on fountain pen friendly papers: Rhodia, Tomoe River, and Leuchtturm.

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: None

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: None

Other properties: high shading, no sheen, and no shimmer. Doukan shades yellow and pink, Ginkan shades purple and green.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was lots of feathering in every nib size as well as a little bleeding.

Comparison Swabs:

Doukan is pretty close to Sailor Ink Studio 173. It has the same yellow and pink shading.

Ginkan is pretty similar to Sailor Ink Studio 123. Both are light grey with purple and green shading.

Kinkan is similar to Vinta La Paz.

Longer Writing:

I used a Taroko Enigma notebook. All of the inks had an average to slightly wet flow.

Overall, I love both Doukan and Ginkan. Kinkan is really good, but not as good as the other two. If you can’t get your hands on these, maybe give the Sailor Ink Studio inks a try-123 and 173 are both pretty good matches for Doukan and Ginkan. Someday I’ll make it to the Pen Fair in person.

Disclaimer: These inks were provided by Fudefan for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. This page does not contain affiliate links, and is not sponsored in any way.