Pilot Iroshizuku 100th Anniversary Inks, Part 1

Pilot celebrated their 100th anniversary with some vey expensive fountain pens and a set of 7 limited edition Iroshizuku inks. I decided to break the set up into 2 groups to review them. Let’s tackle Bishamonten, Benzaiten, Daikokuten and Ebisu first. You can find the 50ml bottles of these inks at Pen Chalet.

Swabs:

Bishamonten is supposed to be a red, but it’s really a dark pink, Benzaiten is a light warm pink, Diakokuten is a dark but vibrant yellow, and Ebisu is a lovely sky blue.

Writing samples:

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

Dry time:

The inks took 20-30 seconds to dry.

Water resistance: Low

Feathering: Low-there was just a little bit of feathering in the flex nib on Rhodia and Leuchtturm.

Show through: Medium

Bleeding: Low

Other properties: All four had medium shading. Bishamonten had medium sheen and Benziten had a tiny bit of gold sheen.

On Staples 24 lb copy paper there was lots of feathering in the larger nib sizes as well as a bit of bleeding.

Comparison Swabs:

Similar inks:

Bishamonten is closest to Caran D’arche Divine Pink. Benzaiten is much warmer than Kosumosu. Daikokuten is close to Akkerman Gele Oker van Frans. Ebisu is similar to Sailor Jentle Yuki-akari.

I used a Bond Travel Gear A5 notebook. The inks all had a wetter flow.

Overall, they are all ok and perform well, but out of the four I like Daikokuten the most. I’m just not excited by any of them.

Disclaimer: I purchased these inks myself, and all photos and opinions are my own. This page does contain affiliate links, but this post is not sponsored in any way.