review: takeda jimuki TAG kyo no oto hisoku

TAG Kyo no Oto Hisoku has been a recent favorite. Let's take a look at it!

TAG Kyo no Oto and Kyo Iro inks are made by Takeda Jimuki, a stationery retailer with shops throughout Japan. Their inks hit the international market not too long ago, and they're quite accessible nowadays.

Inks come in this rectangular bottle (I'm showing the bottle for Adzukiiro here, but Hisoku's is identical with a similar label style). I quite like the no-nonsense appearance of these bottles. It holds ink! That's all it needs to do.

Takeda Jimuki Kyo no Oto Hisoku is a light blue with a slight green tint.

For information on how I do my reviews, please visit my policy page.

This ink has almost no water resistance at all. Best not to let the ink get in contact with rain or a spilled glass.

Hisoku is a dry ink—similar to other Kyo no Oto and Kyo Iro inks—so it doesn't take very long to dry. It was done by the fifteen second mark on Kokuyo MIO paper.

There's a little bit of shading in the fine and 1.1 mm nib, though it's not particularly noticeable.

It looks quite lovely on Tomoe River paper, but there's no sheen and very little shading here as well.

I don't have anything quite like Hisoku. Diamine Eau de Nil and Noodler's Legal Lapis are both more saturated, though Eau De Nil is a little closer to the mark. De Atramentis Pigeon Blue is more turquoise. Troublemaker Abalone is somewhat close, but it does have that purple-pink shadng.

Like other TAG inks, Hisoku performs best in wetter pens. I have this ink my TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with a 1.1 mm nib, which has finally decided to be a gusher after about a week in pen jail. Hisoku definitely benefits from the very wet flow of this pen, and it looks fantastic with no flow issues.

Hisoku is a gorgeous ink. It's not cheap, but it's quickly become one of my favorite inks. I'll be writing my top five inks of 2019 soon, and you can expect to see Hisoku feature on there...

Where to buy

• JetPens: bottle
• Pen Chalet: bottle / sample
• Wonder Pens: bottle + sample