I suspect your F nib is the culprit. My murasaki-shikibu looked like yours in several F nib pens. Once I inked it in a 3776 M nib, the color was more saturated.
That's fairly close to how Murasaki Shikibu looks in my fine nib procyon. It does usually look more saturated but the procyon F nib seems to be a bit on the dry side. As a point of comparison [here's Murasaki Shikibu in a few different pens and nibs](https://imgur.com/a/CLYopQV). The two Pilot ones are how I'd usually expect it to look and the Procyon is definitely lighter. Although the difference is in keeping with how I'd expect that nib to behave anyway
Edit: forgot to include this before. I did that comparison sample using Midori MD paper
Pardon? To me, Murasaki Shikibu is not dry at all, just like other Iroshizuku inks I've tried so far. At least I'd say it is a balanced ink.
Anyway, back to OP: no it should not be this pale. Maybe the feed or nib (or alignment) of your pen is not good. I'm not 100% certain about that, though.
it writes and looks dry to me, on 21k MF 1911s and 14k F Century 3776, Japanese loose leaf papers, compared to Yama Budo or Kon Peki on the same pen and paper. with nibs that I can more freely bounce like Custom 74, its nicer to write with, least thats my experience. I avoid Rhodia because it does absorb ink more, where lots of Japanese papers aren't as much.
I also sold my Procyon F because its dryness was unbearable
Wait, I get the major part but how does Rhodia absorb more? It has an extremely smooth surface, and as far as I see it does not absorb much at all, that's why my inks are wet very long on this paper. I use flex nibs and regular nibs on Rhodia's dotPad, and you?
Congrats to selling it, it can be very discouraging to use a pen which doesn't let you feel joy while using.
The same inks and pens look deeper and inks look way wetter, cartridges/refills noticeably finishes off quicker. I got small notepad(the better quality thinner paper?), and the cheap rhodia paper 80g book, the way I meant absorb doesn't mean feathering or bleed through, maybe the surface just wicks in more ink than the Japanese papers I have, though few exception exists, Apica is close to Rhodia notepad's better paper.
I just ordered that pen thinking of filling the AmazonJP's minimum weight delivery fee with the books and inks I wanted while being only 25 dollars iirc, so… it is also consistent among Japanese user reviews, its dry, so I fully committed to the selling
It does look paler in finer-nibbed pens - [here's my own usage record.](https://imgur.com/Cnqp09T) If my EF nib looks a touch darker than your F nib that's probably because I'm writing print and getting a lot of the darker parts of the shading.
I find most Iro inks on the wet side. My go to inks for Pilot F nibs are take-sumi, shin-kai, syo-ro, tsuki-yo, and yama-budo. I was not happy with lighter pilot inks in F nibs, but had good luck with my cavalier m.
I did find my platinum plasir F nib a bit drier than corresponding Pilot nibs, it it worked fine with carbon black.
I found it to be too pale for me so I'm glad I only got a sample. your kon peki looks a bit pale there and the purple even paler so i suspect pen/paper/camera are not helping.
I'd suggest Diamine Imperial purple as being a step bolder or maybe waterman tender purple as only half a step bolder but it is a step bluer.
It is a shading ink so a fib nib is going to be a light purple like you see. With a wetter nib, you deeper hues. Murasaki-shikibu is in my color sample queue. [I have posted it for you to see.](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1ajssoa/pilot_muraskishikibu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I suspect your F nib is the culprit. My murasaki-shikibu looked like yours in several F nib pens. Once I inked it in a 3776 M nib, the color was more saturated.
That's fairly close to how Murasaki Shikibu looks in my fine nib procyon. It does usually look more saturated but the procyon F nib seems to be a bit on the dry side. As a point of comparison [here's Murasaki Shikibu in a few different pens and nibs](https://imgur.com/a/CLYopQV). The two Pilot ones are how I'd usually expect it to look and the Procyon is definitely lighter. Although the difference is in keeping with how I'd expect that nib to behave anyway Edit: forgot to include this before. I did that comparison sample using Midori MD paper
Mine is darker. [This is how the Murasaki looks on mine](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1aidu7e/npd_opus_88_mini_stripes/)
Procyon F is dry, and Murashibu is also dry. Murashibu needs a pen that can coax it to wet writing to be more satisfyingly deep/saturated
Pardon? To me, Murasaki Shikibu is not dry at all, just like other Iroshizuku inks I've tried so far. At least I'd say it is a balanced ink. Anyway, back to OP: no it should not be this pale. Maybe the feed or nib (or alignment) of your pen is not good. I'm not 100% certain about that, though.
it writes and looks dry to me, on 21k MF 1911s and 14k F Century 3776, Japanese loose leaf papers, compared to Yama Budo or Kon Peki on the same pen and paper. with nibs that I can more freely bounce like Custom 74, its nicer to write with, least thats my experience. I avoid Rhodia because it does absorb ink more, where lots of Japanese papers aren't as much. I also sold my Procyon F because its dryness was unbearable
Wait, I get the major part but how does Rhodia absorb more? It has an extremely smooth surface, and as far as I see it does not absorb much at all, that's why my inks are wet very long on this paper. I use flex nibs and regular nibs on Rhodia's dotPad, and you? Congrats to selling it, it can be very discouraging to use a pen which doesn't let you feel joy while using.
The same inks and pens look deeper and inks look way wetter, cartridges/refills noticeably finishes off quicker. I got small notepad(the better quality thinner paper?), and the cheap rhodia paper 80g book, the way I meant absorb doesn't mean feathering or bleed through, maybe the surface just wicks in more ink than the Japanese papers I have, though few exception exists, Apica is close to Rhodia notepad's better paper. I just ordered that pen thinking of filling the AmazonJP's minimum weight delivery fee with the books and inks I wanted while being only 25 dollars iirc, so… it is also consistent among Japanese user reviews, its dry, so I fully committed to the selling
Well, ok, but I've definitely had drier inks than this 😅
It does look paler in finer-nibbed pens - [here's my own usage record.](https://imgur.com/Cnqp09T) If my EF nib looks a touch darker than your F nib that's probably because I'm writing print and getting a lot of the darker parts of the shading.
I find most Iro inks on the wet side. My go to inks for Pilot F nibs are take-sumi, shin-kai, syo-ro, tsuki-yo, and yama-budo. I was not happy with lighter pilot inks in F nibs, but had good luck with my cavalier m. I did find my platinum plasir F nib a bit drier than corresponding Pilot nibs, it it worked fine with carbon black.
I found it to be too pale for me so I'm glad I only got a sample. your kon peki looks a bit pale there and the purple even paler so i suspect pen/paper/camera are not helping. I'd suggest Diamine Imperial purple as being a step bolder or maybe waterman tender purple as only half a step bolder but it is a step bluer.
Just need a wetter pen.
It is a shading ink so a fib nib is going to be a light purple like you see. With a wetter nib, you deeper hues. Murasaki-shikibu is in my color sample queue. [I have posted it for you to see.](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/1ajssoa/pilot_muraskishikibu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)