Taccia - Uguisu

Taccia - Uguisu - Ink drop

This is Uguisu from Taccia’s standard line. Taccia inks are designed to be comfortable, easy, and safe to use. The name comes from the Uguisu, aka the Japanese Bush Warbler, a songbird with distinctive light and dark green coloration that matches Taccia’s ink quite well.

Taccia - Uguisu - Shading and Sheen

Visually, Uguisu is a rich, lush, vegetal green with yellow and brown undertones weaving through it like the fibres of a palm frond or bamboo leaf. There is some nice shading with this ink. Light areas glow with a chlorophyll-like yellow-green, while darks display the deeper colors of sautéed spinach or kale. The splatter shows a striking, textured cinnamon-rust red sheen. Against the backdrop of greens, it’s simply gorgeous, but neither sheen nor halo show in writing. Their absence does not detract from what is a very attractive, complex green.

Taccia - Uguisu - Ink Swatch Card

As a writing ink, this is a well-balanced, very comfortable ink. It’s slightly wet, and very smooth-flowing. Strokes were clean and sharp on all premium papers tested. There was some micro-feathering on office copy, but it was generally still quite clean overall. Shading was pronounced on both coated and uncoated premiums but weakened considerably on office copy. Drying was never a problem at 15-20 seconds on coated and uncoated premiums, and under 5 seconds on office copy. This is a nice writing ink.

I really like Taccia Uguisu. I’m not a huge fan of traditional emerald greens, and always lean towards the olives and plant-based greens, so this works well for me. There’s something just a little different here, and like the songbird, this green sings! I haven’t tried too many of the standard Taccia inks, yet, but I’ve enjoyed the ones that I have, and and love the Ukiyo-e line. I look forward to more. If you’re new to Taccia inks, the standard line is very affordable, and a great place to start!