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Fragrance of Sumi
A numbered series of Sailor-made city colors, each telling the story of a Kobe neighborhood.
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Paper & pairing
As a near-neutral tone, it reads as professional and safe for anything from journaling to signatures. This ink will behave predictably on most fountain-pen-friendly paper. Cheap, highly absorbent paper (standard copier paper) will dull any ink's saturation and can cause feathering or bleed-through with wetter nibs.
About Nagasawa Kobe INK
Nagasawa Bungu Center is a Kobe stationery institution whose roots go back to 1882. In 2007, partly to commemorate the city's recovery from the Great Hanshin earthquake, it launched Kobe INK Monogatari (Kobe Ink Story), a Sailor-made series of numbered 'city colors' in which each ink captures a Kobe neighborhood, landmark or landscape. The line has since grown well beyond 60 numbered colors plus store-limited editions.
Storing and using the bottle
Bottled fountain pen ink has an effectively long shelf life when kept capped and out of direct sunlight: most inks remain usable for years. The main risk isn't the ink spoiling, it's a pen sitting inked and unused for weeks: that's what causes clogs, not the ink's age.
Frequently asked questions
Similar shades By colour distance
Color shown is a close digital approximation of a typical swatch, not a calibrated color match.