Ink Review: Kyo-no-oto Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro

Kyo-no-oto recently released two new inks – Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro – a deep blue ink and a dark, dusty green. But these two inks contain a surprise – sparkle. Thank you to Dromgoole’s for sending these inks for review!

Kyo-no-oto is known for releasing ink colors inspired by places or cultural items in Japan. Ruriiro refers to Lapis Lazuli or Ultramarine. Ryokuyu is green leaves and I’ve found day spas associated

The sparkle in these inks looks purple and green in the bottles, but as far as I can tell, it’s actually silver in both.

Here are swatches of Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro:

Ruriiro is a beautiful ultramarine blue.

Ruriiro is in-between Diamine Regency Blue and J. Herbin Bleu Myosotis. In the swatch there is evidence of shading but not present unless there is a large amount of the ink.

I’ve shown writing samples on both Cosmo Air Light 83 and Tomoe River 52gsm. Both are from Musubi.

Cosmo Air Light:

Tomoe River:

Ruriiro was not dry in writing – not what I would expect at all from a shimmer ink or an ink from Kyo-no-oto. After about 15 or 20 minutes of writing, the shimmer did clog slightly. I was able to restart by agitating the pen, however.

Now for Ryokuyuiro; a dusty, soft green.

Ryokuyuiro is close to Sailor Studio 462 in color (although it has a touch more blue) and looks about as shimmery as J. Herbin Vert Atlantide.

Writing with Ryokuyuiro is noticeably drier than Ruriiro but not nearly as dry as other Kyo-no-oto inks.

Cosmo Air Light:

Tomoe River:

Again, I did have some clogging after 15 minutes of writing. I was able to get the pen unclogged fairly easily, but I noticed Ryokuyuiro was much drier than Ruriiro.

Both inks are listed as $30 for 40mL – on the expensive side but not as pricy as Sailor Studio. One or both may be worth this, depending on how you use ink. These are beautiful in very wide nibs – Pilot Parallel pens (which were used in these samples), dip pens, folded nibs – would be perfect. Finer nibs would probably have a tough time keeping up.

My favorite here is absolutely Ruriiro. The deep blue-violet is beautiful!

• Swatch Cards: Col-o-ring cards (100 for $10)
• Paper: Musubi Tomoe River Folio and Musubi Cosmo Air Light Folio (Approximately $35 for 384 pages and $25 for 208 pages)
• Ink: Kyo-no-oto Ruriiro and Ryokuyuiro ($30 for 40mL each)

DISCLAIMER:  The inks in this review were provided free by Dromgooles for the purpose of this review.  All other items in this review were purchased by me.  Please see the About page for more details.