—
The maker, the year, the line — and the language of the name itself.
The primary read, the pool at the trough, the sheen at the angle, and how much the colour shifts as it dries.
The liquid itself — pH, viscosity, how it behaves in the bottle and inside a demonstrator.
Wetness, saturation, sheen, shading — and how feathering and ghosting test on standard cream.
Seconds to a smudge-free pass on the standard cream paper.
Where this ink belongs in the cabinet — by nib, by paper, by occasion.
An ink the rest of the cupboard is benchmarked against. Lay it down with a generous nib on a paper that refuses to bleed, and the night arrives on the page in the time it takes to turn off the desk lamp.
From the line of Iroshizuku — "colour droplets" — each ink named for a moment in the Japanese natural year. Tsuki-yo is the moon, viewed from a window, on a night cool enough to want the lamp on.
50 ml · Iroshizuku flask
Glass · cork-stopper
Tier II · $ 0.56 per ml