Sailor Kobe Bottled Ink - Shioya Blue #17

I was torn between #17 Shioya Blue and #2 Hatoba Pier Blue, so bought samples of both. But since Shioya is similar to Sky High of which I have two bottles, and to Souten, I decided to buy a bottle of Hatoba instead.

With the right pen and paper combos, there is some pretty red sheen, which is visible even with my H-EF sailor nibs. I find it’s a cheery lighter blue, which is richly saturated to be readable in all nib widths and all papers and pops off the page without being eye searing. I’ve observed no skipping, hard starts, nib dry-out, bleedthrough, and also no feathering. It shades beautifully on Rhodia, Clairefontaine, TR, Graphilo and other Japanese papers: it goes from light- to mid- to dark tones while preserving red sheen in the darker areas. It’s eye candy to read back notes taken with it!

Even if I have enough Sky High to last me a lifetime, I enjoy my samples of Shioya nonetheless and will be buying more samples of this colour. Should I ever run out of Sky High, I won’t be replacing it with Souten: $20 for 20 ml is the same price per millilitre as $50 for 50 ml, so Shioya it will be… after I finish my #2 Hatoba Pier Blue, that is.