Bungbox Tokyo Metro Colors Nambuko and Hanzomon Lines

Review three of the series and this time two inks.  Information on how I obtained these inks can be found here.

Nambuko Line

The Nambuko or number 7 line is one of the newer lines in the metro featuring advanced technology such as fully automated train operation and platform screen doors.  All the trains on this line use 6 cars despite the stations being able to take 8.  The name literally means South-North line.

 The colour of the line is supposed to be emerald green obtaining its name because of the images of several Japanese gardens by the line.  I don’t mind green inks but this is more teal / sea green which is apparent the minute the bottle is opened.  Even the label on the bottle is more in keeping with teal than emerald green.

The drop on absorbent paper revealed some great colours within the ink and gave hope for a really nice sheening or shading ink.  You can see there are some green and some blue-green colours – it is still predominantly a teal colour not emerald green.

The col-o-ring swatch was really disappointing as it was completely washed out looking

With the col-o-ring swatch I realised I had seen this ink before.  The first is a colorverse in (Photon) the other two bungbox (Namboku) and Kobe ((Nunobiki) both made by Sailor. Thus if you like the colour there are some good dupes.

The Tomoe river swatch was not much better than the col-o-ring - still washed out and somewhat dull.

The writing experience was different as it does write more as an emerald green.  The pen I used a Levenger Truewriter has a medium nib but writes like a broad and it is a wet pen.

Rhodia

Tomoe River

Cheap notebook

Hanzomon LIne

The Hanzomon or number 11 line is named after the west gate of the Imperial palace (Hazamon).  This gate is in turn named after a 16th century Sumari Hattori Hanzo.  It is the 6th most crowded line and at times runs at 173% capacity.
Like line 13 (Fukutoshin) it is not known how this line got its colour – purple.  The colour in the bottle was quite blue but the drop on absorbent paper held out a lot of promise for a sheening / shading ink.  There really are some lovely bright colours in this ink.

Surprisingly, just as I was surprised with the Nambuko line ink it was quite disappointing when swatched.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe River

Despite the rather washed out more violet than purple colour when swatched you do get hints of the blue colour especially on the Tomoe river paper.

I love my purple inks and was thinking this was going to be a bust but as with the Nambuko line ink it writes a lot darker than expected.  I used this ink all week at work, it held up well on any paper.  Unfortunately when doing this review I knocked the bottle all over my desk hence no water fastness test at the end as I usually do - I did not want to waste any of what little I had left of this ink.

Rhodia

It writes a lot darker than it swatches but sadly without shade or sheen.  You can just start to see the influence of the colours that make up the ink in the dry time tests.

Tomoe River - definitely purple now but no shading or sheen

I know I should probably have tried this ink in a pen with a broader nib - some of its properties may have been more obvious but I go back to the issue with knocking the bottle over - I ended up not wanting to use more of the ink than I had to as I ended up really liking it when I had used it at work.

When I tried the Nambuko Line on this cheap paper it feathered and had quite a bit of show and bleed through.  This ink - no.  I suspect it more to do with using a somewhat drier pen for this test than I did with the ink above.  Here I used a Monteverde artista crystal with a medium nib.

O the four inks so far tried this is the best and I know its because I like purple inks.  The other three I have tried are well behaved inks the colours are just nothing special and I am sure I could find dupes for all of them not just the Nambuko Line ink.