Welcome to My Colorful Palette

There are many traditional colors in Japan and looking at those color names, we will find interesting things from that.
Many colors are named after flowers, trees and birds, but Why?
The reason is that people named colors after things around their life to recognize them.
We will notice that the color played important role in Japanese ancestor and it melted into Japanese life very much.
We will also notice that Japanese ancestor had a sense to enjoy colors through their life.
By comparison with ancestor modern peopel like us don't think colors are part of our life, because we don't sense colors in the same way with ancestor and our sense of value for colors has been changing.
For recent Japanese people colors are not for their enjoyment like our ancestor, but they are for standing out from another people and another things so colors are much more vivid.
And accepting many western life style also change Japanese colors much clearer.
The result that most of the recent people don't even know that there are many colors which are distinguished by certain names named by our ancestor.
Now let's look through my photos of traditional colors to find the character of modern Japanese people.

Kiyomizu temple and Japanese Apricot

This picture shows Kiyomizu temple and Ume (Japanese apricot).

This represens the best example of the color which was named after flower, because the pink color was called Koubai iro■(紅梅色)

紅 means red and 梅 means Ume.

The color was mentioned in many poem in Heian period in 794 so that for Japanese people in the era ume was always around their lives and people were fascinated by the color.

But now the name is not generally used among modern Japanese people.

We call all this kind of colors "pink" instead.

That is because our life style has been westernized and as a result of that Japanese flowers are less close to our life now.

Now the number of western type of houes has been increasing and it reflects the growth of the number of western flowers.

TORII

This is TORII of Heian shrine.

This color is called Shu iro■(朱色) This is the one of red color.

We use this color for many shrine, because the reason that Japanese ancestor believe this kind of color has the power of protecting people from evil spirit.

Torii is for the border between sanctuary of God and human place, so we use Shu iro for torii to remove our evil to visit a shrine.

But for modern Japanese people this kind of color has no such a meaning.

We use this kind of color just for the reason it stands out among any other colors.

Japanese Parasol

This is a BANGASA, which is an umbrella, in front of shops.

There are many combination between red and black color in Japan.
Since Muromachi era in 1392 Japanese ancestors have started to use contrastive color a lot.

Muromachi is known for Wabi and Sabi, which mean austere beauty and patina, so on one hand grayish colors were popular among people but on the other hand people also liked brilliant and vivid color as above picture and Kinkaku temple to show their prosperity and dignity.

As religious aspect red represents fire and black represents water.

This kind of belief is also the reason why Japanese people use contrastive color for ethnic events and certain kind of ceremony.

We often see this kind of contrastive color at Japanese festival as fan, portable shrine and Japanese lantern.

Japanese Front Door

This is Japanese style of front door.

We have been using wood to built houses and buildings for a long time, because it suits Japanese humid and rainy climate.
So we can say that wood houses are tipical style of Japanese house.
The warmth of wood color makes us calm and wood color is primitive and comfortable.
But many buildings made of reinforced concreat are now in modern Japan.
That kind of concreat color looks very cold and it destroys Japanese traditional warmth atmosphere.

Heian shrine

This is Heian shrine in Kyoto.

This shrine is famous for Heian era in 794.

In this era this kind of vivid and bright color was loved by people.

Nobleman could only wear this kind of colorful "Kimono", because some of this kind of vivid color was prohibited for general people.

Banned color are like these colors. ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

People still had a longing for those banned color and they made similar colors but those colors were pale, because only pale colors allowed general people using them.

Those pale colors are like these color. ■ ■

There are many pastel colored clothes in Japan now.

We can say that those colors have started to been created since this era as the above fact.

UME

These are Japanese apricot.
Japanese people sense each season with colors, because we have different climate in each season.
Spring is pastel colors like cherry blossom, Summer is vivid color like green trees and bamboo, Fall is moderate color like fallen leaves and Winter is no color like snow white.
Ancestor especially enjoyed each season wearing colorful "Kimono" to express each season flowers using more than two colors.

TSUBAKI

This picture show two types of TSUBAKI (japonica).

Tubaki flower blooms in spring with bright red and pink petal.

This is also typical Japanese flower which tells us the coming of spring with their beautiful color.

Colorful Monkeys

This is Kongou temple near to Houkan temple.
There are many colorful KUKURIZARU, which are for talisman to control human desire.

Interesting to say that this "Kukurizaru" first started in Edo era in1603.
Its general color is red but actually there are many colorful "Kukurizaru".
I think this shows that we need to use colorful colors to charm modern Japanese people.

HANAMI

This is an avenue of cherry trees.

This color is also typical color named after flower.

This kind of color is called Sakura iro. (桜色)　桜 means cherry blossom.

NOREN

This is a NOREN, which is a shop curtain.
This kind of color were popular in Edo era in 1603.

People in this era prefered wearing this kind of color and many brown colors were created.

Those brown color were named after Kabuki actor which are like Rokoucha ■, Baikoucha ■, Kourainando ■, Iwaicha ■.

Interesting to say that brown color, which we call Cha iro (茶色) (茶　means tea), was first named in Edo era because a habit of drinking tea was established in this era.

So things around us give us a idea of color name and then we can finally recognize it.

Comparing to Heian era, the different of color is obvious.

The color was vivid in Heian era.

I think that Japanese spirit, which is not to stand out among others, was established in this era.

Japanese Restaurant

These are Japanese style building in Kyoto.

The building on the top was built in Edo period and the wall is painted with Bengara iro (弁柄色) which is one of brown color made in this period.

Mdern Japanese people are not only the person who follows trend color, but also Japanese ancestor did.

Gold Tower

This is the Tower of Yasaka in Houkan temple.

Mdern Japanese people and Ancestor have the same image for Gold color.

Both of them think gold color represents luxury and prosperity.

Gold is difined Buddha's body in buddhism so that especially ancestor respected gold color.

The world of Taketori story

This is a bamboo grove in Koudai temple.

This kind of color is called "Green" in modern Japan but we call it "Blue" sometimes.

I am not sure when we start to call this color "Green", but through Japanese history Green was not taken important color in their life.

Green color are too much around people life to be interested in the color.

Blue means immature and new for Japanese people, so that we call young bamboo Aotake (青竹) (青 means blue and 竹 means bamboo) and young rice field Aota (青田) (田 means rice field) , even though their color are "Green".

Japanese Garden

This is a Japanese garden with rocks and sand in Koudai temple.
This kind of white and gray color began to be popular in Muromachi era because the reason that Wabi and Sabi, which I mentioned at the post titled Japanese Parasol, was established in this era.
But modern Japanese people are getting forgotten about the beauty of Wabi and Sabi.
I think we are getting used to many colorful things around our life.

Visionary Sight

This is a cherry tree in Maruyama Park in Kyoto.

It seems to be like a picture of ink painting.

There are many famous people who painted ink painting in Edo era.

Ink painting was popular especially in the era so that this kind of black and white color ware loved among Japanese people in Edo era.