The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was that the colors in the palette looked dark and blah. I know most watercolors look very different in the pans than they do wet, but five shades of black? To my surprise and delight, some of those “blacks” ended up being very light, bright hues.

Compared to my Yarka and Sakura Koi watercolor sets, the Akashiya seem more transparent. The palette is very different from most off-the-shelf palettes I’ve seen. It’s somewhat similar to my Sakura Koi box of 24 colors, and a couple of the blues and greens are really nice. (No brown at all – I suppose that’s the easiest to mix – and only one yellow.) So I’m delighted to try out some new hues.

Oddly enough, the palette includes a metallic gold and metallic silver. I don’t know how much use I have for those, but they’re unusual. One other thing to note is that the square pans are not attached to the palette – they are all individual boxes that come out of the cardboard tray they come in. The whole box is not at all portable, since it’s too large to hold in the field (and if you drop it, all the individual pans would come flying out). Overall, I’m happy that I gave in to the impulse to buy the set and am looking forward to exploring these thoroughly transparent colors. For a more thorough review, including painted color samples of all 24 colors, please see my blog:
http://www.tina-koyama.blogspot.com/2012/03/product-review-akashiya-watercolor s.html

I find these to be duller and weaker (less pigmented) than the Kuretake Gansai Tambi and Holbein Shin-Gansai—with the exception of the silver. There’s a muted, chalky look to the rest, and, for me, the paints don’t handle as well as the other brands, which I find easier to get a range of pale/vivid/translucent/opaque from. I decided to give the set away to someone else.

Translucent and transparent...just gorgeous. If you like watercolor like this, you will love these...well worth the price. Added bonus...silver and gold!!

Beautiful colors and pigments, use the inside chart to play with your watercolors and create a handy guide for the future! A lot of these colors are very dark in the pan because of how pigmented they are so i was really surprised by what a lot of these colors looked like when i put them to paper! You don't need very much to make an impact, this pan will last me years so it's well worth the investment!

This was in the list of things I wanted someday and today was the day happened. So, very happy.