Best Japanese Notebooks for Ink Swatching? | Tomoe River vs Midori, Life & More (15 Tested)

Which Japanese paper is actually best for ink swatching? In this video, I test 15 popular Japanese notebooks and paper types to see how they perform with fountain pen inks — especially those with shimmer, sheen, shading, and heavy saturation.

Whether you’re building an ink swatch book, planning your next notebook setup, or just love seeing ink in action, this comparison will help you find the right paper for your needs.

Some handle shimmer and sheen effortlessly. Others… not so much. Watch to find out which papers feather, bleed, or fade — and which come out on top.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:44 The Inks
05:22 Vintage Vibes Group
06:52 Midori MD
10:22 Masuya Monokaki
11:24 Tsubame Fools
12:38 Life Noble
14:15 Work Horses Group
14:27 Stalogy 365
15:56 Muji
16:57 Yusari
18:29 Kokuyo Perpanep Zara Zara
20:18 Kokuyo Campus
21:56 Popular Group
22:05 Iroful
24:19 Maruman Mnemosyne (kleid limited edition)
26:02 Hobonichi Tomoe River S
28:27 Yamamoto Paper Bank Paper Takasago Premium
31:10 Yamamoto Smooth Art
33:34 Yamamoto Sheep Clouds
34:40 Top 3
38:40 My Number 1

💡 What I test for:
Fountain pen ink behaviour (shading, shimmer, sheen)
Bleedthrough and feathering
Texture, tooth, and writing feel

👀 Perfect For:
Fountain pen & ink collectors
Swatch book builders
Notebook and stationery lovers
Japanese paper fans & journaling nerds

👇 Drop your favourite Japanese paper for fountain pens in the comments!

See pinned comment - it seems likely that 2026 hobonichi planners have new tomoe river spaper but 2026 hobonichi notepads may still have the lower quality 2024/25 paper. my 2025 cousin had the same issue this featured moomin notebook has PLUS feathering (which is shown in my video about my 2026 planners for a budget of £59)