Kuretake Watercolor Gansai Tambi 18-color set

Gansai Tambi is Kuretake's line of traditional Japanese watercolours in solid pans – handcrafted in Japan, water-based and renowned for their creamy-soft, intensely pigmented consistency. The 18-colour set combines a carefully curated core palette of black, white, warm earth tones, rich greens, clear blues and violet. The colours use a Japanese binder approach that differs fundamentally from Western gum arabic formulations – with noticeable effects on opacity, transparency and reactivation.

Features

• Oversized pans (approx. 48 × 28 mm): The generous format allows working with broad flat brushes and round brushes up to size 14 without restriction – even when laying large-scale washes, a single brush stroke picks up enough colour.
• Japanese binder formula instead of gum arabic: The Gansai technique uses traditional alternative binders that enable significantly greater reactivation after drying – dried layers can be picked up again with a wet brush, shifted or corrected.
• Transparency by choice: With little water, a creamy-opaque layer with subtle satin sheen emerges, similar to gouache; with more water the colours become transparent and luminous like classical watercolour – both are possible with the same pans.
• Lightfast and vegan, ACMI-certified: All 18 colours are lightfast and non-toxic; names such as "Cadmium Red" and "Cobalt Violet" are colour names – the pigmentation is non-toxic and vegan.
• Removable individual pans: Each colour block sits in its own well, which can be removed from the palette – handy for working with mixed palettes or replacing individual used-up colours.
• Colour swatch chart in the lid: The inside of the lid provides spaces to swatch all 18 colours directly with your own brush – creating a personal reference that shows exactly how the colours appear on your own paper.
• Protective film as mixing palette: The included protective film keeps the pans in place during transport and simultaneously serves as a mixing surface for washes.
• Packaging with washi paper finish: The cardboard box features a green washi overlay – understated elegance with unmistakably Japanese character.

Use & Tips

• Activation: Thoroughly wet the brush and work the colour for about a minute – Gansai Tambi activates most evenly when the surface is thoroughly saturated, not merely dampened.
• Laying washes on the mixing surface: For large-scale glazes, dilute the colour on the protective film or a separate mixing palette well, not directly in the pan – standing water in the pan can cause cracking in the colour layer as it dries.
• Paper choice: On watercolour paper (200–300 g/m²) with rough or semi-rough surface, transparent layers unfold particularly well. On Japanese rice paper, the colours display characteristic flow properties that are barely achievable with Western watercolours.
• Transparent glazing technique: For glowing depth, layer multiple dry coats on top of one another – whilst the colours' reactivation is high, the layers hold up well when painted over quickly, provided the underlying film has completely dried.
• Opaque work: Paint directly from the pan with a lightly dampened brush – for highlights on dark backgrounds, the included white (No. 10) is particularly suited in almost undiluted form.
• Mixed techniques: Gansai Tambi works well with waterproof ink pens for linework; the colours can also be used on primed mixed-media papers and produce interesting texture effects there.
• Included colours (18): Black (No. 20), Burnt Sienna (46), Cadmium Scarlet (31), Cobalt Violet (139), Indigo (67), Hooker's Green (52), Lemon Yellow (40), Red (32), Rose Madder (34), Deep Rose Madder (36), Sap Green (53), Light Sap Green (51), Turquoise Blue (62), Ultramarine (64), Pale Ultramarine (61), Viridian (55), White (10), Ochre (44).

For Watercolour Enthusiasts

The Gansai tradition traces back to centuries-old Japanese painting techniques in which pigments were processed with natural binders – a formulation that noticeably differs from European watercolours in terms of reactivation and surface sheen. The subtle satin shimmer that many colours display when dry is not a flaw but a characteristic feature of this binder technology and varies from glossy to matt depending on water content. Particularly with Indigo, Ultramarine and Viridian, you can observe how the colour's appearance changes with the degree of drying. Those familiar with Sumi-e or East Asian painting techniques will experience the Gansai formula as a natural extension of their material repertoire.

Technical Specifications