Sailor - Manyo - Ume

Sailor - Manyo - Ume - Ink drop

Let’s look at Ume from Sailor’s Manyo series. Manyo inks are based on flowers from the Manyoshu, an ancient anthology of Japanese poems. Ume translates to “plum” in English. Japan has a wide variety of blossoming plum, ranging from white to dark pink. Sailor Ume resembles the dark outer casing that protects a variety of white plum buds, opening to reveal the blossom.

Visually, this is a powerful ink. The base color is a deep brick or plum red. It’s a moderate shading ink that lightens to a pale, pinkish-cinnamon red. In the splatter, pooling is edged in a lovely green-gold sheen. On most papers, only hints can be seen. Apica was the exception, where it showed as a strong, sparkling edge on written strokes. This is an attractive, very usable ink.

Sailor - Manyo - Ume - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, it’s slightly viscous, which often promotes sheen and can produce a clean stroke profile. Ume gives us both. Strokes were sharp on premium papers, and office copy, as well. Shading was best on Rhodia and Mnemosyne. The sheen edge on Apica was the only form of halo to appear. Drying times were 15-20 seconds. On office copy strokes showed a tiny hint of feather, but it isn’t terrible. There was no sheen or halo, but shading was better than expected. Drying was only 5 seconds.

Sailor’s Manyo inks are consistently good, and Ume is no exception. This is a nice writing ink, and deep scarlets and plum reds like this are extremely usable colors, too. If you don’t have one, or are looking for a change, consider Sailor Manyo Ume.