Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink - Yu-Yake 50mL

Pilot Iroshizuku Yu-Yake
Fire-like sunset
The colour of Yu-Yake is pen related and goes from mid-orange in the ones with stingy flow, to red-orange in the ones with generous flow. The colour is similar to Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin but Yu-Yake doesn’t feel thin under the nib of watery. In the pen and paper combos I’ve used, Yu-Yake dries quickly, but to a flat finish reminiscent of J. Herbin Orange Indien. It still remains vibrant, though.

I’ve seen no feathering—except on notebooks made with Oxford Optik paper—, no bleedthrough, and no sheen. I’ve observed shading, the ink going sometimes from an orange to a red-orange within the same letter (on TR 52 gsm). It’s readable, but I prefer inks that shade from unsaturated to saturated, while maintaining the same tone. It won’t dislodge my favourite oranges: Sailor Apricot, now Kin-Mokusei, followed closely by Aurora 100th Anniversary Orange.

Yu-Yake still gets five stars as it is well behaved and cleaned out of the pens easily with water.