Kyo-iro - Soft Snow of Ohara

Kyo-iro Soft Snow of Ohara - ink drop

Soft Snow of Ohara is part of the Kyo-iro line from Takeda Jimuki’s Kyoto-based TAG Stationery. Kyo-iro (Kyoto colors) inks are inspired by the beauty and culture of Kyoto. Ohara is a small village just north of Kyoto. Renowned for its natural beauty, it’s a popular retreat for the changing autumn colors, spring cherry blossoms, and snowy rolling hills in winter. The ink is just as poetic as its name.

Kyo-iro Soft Snow of Ohara - ink swatch card

Visually, Soft Snow of Ohara is a gentle, powdery, blueberry blue, but certain lighting conditions bring out violets, and add mystery to its graceful personality. This is a nice shading ink on coated papers, and on office copy, too. Light areas fade to a pale, violet-dark blue. The color is said to mimic shadows cast by snowbanks at dusk. It’s quite beautiful and steps beyond most blue blacks and dark violets.

As a writing ink, it performed very well. Some TAG inks are a little dry, but there’s no problem with that here. It has a nice, smooth flow. Strokes were crisp and clean on all premiums, with just a slight feather on office copy in wider nibs. The splatter shows a dark edging with a platinum sheen around areas of pooling, but there wasn’t any sheen or halo in writing. As mentioned, shading was nice, and visible on all six papers tested. Drying was fast at 10-15 seconds on coated paper, 5-10 seconds on uncoated, and 5 seconds on office copy.

Kyo-iro Soft Snow of Ohara - ink bottle and box

This is a gorgeous, elegant, sophisticated ink, suitable for professional or casual use. When Kyoto TAG inks aren’t too dry, they are amongst my favorites. I definitely recommend Kyo-iro Soft Snow of Ohara!

December 2021