Pilot Iroshizuku Fountain Pen Ink - Yama-budo 50mL

This gorgeous ink is perfect. Not too bright, but still a statement.

I was hoping Yama-Budo would be bluer like Diamine Claret. Although not as pink as Tsutsuji, it’s still pink, more so on ivory-cream paper.

I’ve observed no feathering or bleedthrough—borderline on more absorbent paper—, just some ghosting on thinner papers and with wetter pens on the Rhodia DotPad. Yama-Budo is a wet ink and coats the nibs well, even my dry Sailor 21 kt H-M. On TR 52 gsm and Graphilo papers, the ink shades from pink to purple, even burgundy. I use it most on more absorbent paper with a Pilot Prera CM nib: I like to see line variation in one consistent, uniform colour; also, the colour is deeper, more like beet juice, on that type of paper, somewhat in line with Kobe #74 Myodani Cosmos Red.

The ink has coppery-gold-green sheen in heavily saturated areas where the ink pools and out of wet nibs on non-absorbent paper like TR, Graphilo or Maruman. I don’t like the sheen’s colour, but since I use Yama-Budo on more absorbent paper with a CM nib, the sheen gets nipped in the bud.

Yama-Budo takes long to dry on the Rhodia DotPad, and longer on TR, but this varies with the pen and paper combos used. It’s a saturated ink but cleans easily out of converters, especially for inks falling into the red colour category.

Yama-Budo is cheerful and vibrant and pops off the page without being eye-searing; I like using it on white paper; the ink is dark enough that the ruling falls into the background. It is readable in all my Sailor nibs, from H-EF to H-B.

This ink is absolutely gorgeous. It goes down as a bright magenta and dries to a rich rose. It's not at all garish and a whole page of writing is very easy on the eye. However, where this ink really shines (literally) is in the sheen department. Where the ink pools there is a lovely golden sheen, especially on Tomoe River Paper.

The Iroshizuku line is, in my opinion, the best of the best. It flows like a dream, lubricates, is easy to clean, I've never met an Iro I didn't like.