How many colors are there in the world? The human eye has the ability to identify nearly 7 million unique colors, but the color spectrum is limitless beyond the naked eye. With so many colors surrounding us on the canvas of life, it isn’t surprising that the perception of color varies from culture to culture. Every culture has its own sense of color, and Japan is no exception. From prehistoric times to the present day, the Japanese have developed their own collection of traditional colors, known as dentouiro (伝統色), which are still recognized and used today.

Creating Color Perception

Variations in color perception across cultures are present for a number of reasons, but they mainly concern the influences of geography, internal cultural affairs, and external cultural interactions.

Some traditional Japanese colors have been used since the Asuka period (538 to 710), while others are more recent. Due to the long history of the Japanese color system, some inconsistencies in color and name do exist, but the basic outline of the color system still remains intact, listing nearly 500 individual colors.

Geography

Some people think of geography as a somewhat useless, easy-A class in college, but the truth is that geography is one of the most important factors in how we interact with and perceive the world around us. In the case of color sense, a group of people living in the desert would undoubtedly perceive the color green very differently from a group living in lush forest lands, as the Japanese do.

Geography also has to do with color in that it dictates the resources available to people. In Japan, this is especially clear as the names of traditional colors are often related to native plants and animals, especially those used to make pigments and dyes. An example of this would be the Japanese color name, akane iro (茜色), which was produced by creating a dye from the root of a plant called akane grass. Another perhaps more familiar example is azuki iro (小豆色), or the color of azuki beans (aka the most delicious thing ever, often the filling of daifuku mochi).

As for colors named after animals, the most popular choice seems to be the mouse, or nezumi, which is used to express grey tones. For starters, you’ve got budou nezumi (ぶどうネズミ), or grape mouse (purple grey). But, the list goes on and on with names like fuji nezumi (藤ネズミ), or Fuji mouse (light purple grey), yanagi nezumi (柳鼠), or willow mouse (light green grey), and cha nezumi (茶鼠), or tea mouse (light brown grey).  All I can say is Japan must have a really big rat problem.

“Die, beast. DIE!!!”

You can see more colors along with the explanations for their names (in Japanese) here.

Internal Culture

Now that geography has been taken into consideration, we can look at the internal cultural affairs that have influenced Japan’s sense of color.

“Ohoho, mister. Look at my pretty dress.”

The beginnings of the traditional Japanese color system can be traced back to the year 603, when Prince Shotoko established the first Twelve Level Cap and Rank System in Japan. Based on Confucian values and the five Chinese elements, this social ordering system determined rank by merit rather than heritage, and certain colors were used as symbols of rank in society, as below:

In this system, the use of colors known as kinjiki (禁色) was forbidden; only the highest ranking government officials were authorized to wear robes of these colors. An example of this is the color Ootan which was strictly reserved for use by the kuge (公家), or the Japanese aristocratic class. On the other hand,  colors designated as yurushiiro (許し色), or permissible colors, were used by the common folk.

“Boo hoo hoo, I am a sad aristocrat.”

Another period noted for its contributions to traditional Japanese color sense is the Heian period. Stretching from the years 794 to 1185, this era is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and is known for its art, especially in poetry and literature. It was during this era that many famous works such as The Tale of Genji were written. The poetry and literature of the Heian period is notably expressive, and many color names and descriptions came about from the pages of these traditional pieces.

External Culture

A third influence on the perception of color within a particular group is the impact of interactions with external cultures. In other words, through the ebb and flow of history, color perceptions are adopted by one culture from another. In the case of Japan, both China and Korea had heavy influences on the traditional colors of Japan early on in history through religious and political ideas. However, in the Meiji era many new colors were adopted in Japan as chemical dyes were introduced through trade with Western countries.

In the 1860′s Napoleon III’s wife, Empress Eugenie (ウージェニー皇后: 1826-1920), made popular a new dye called aniline (アニリン) by showing off her flaming red military boots to the public. It wasn’t long after that a group of entrepreneurial Germans brought the trendy new dye to Japan. Below is a picture of the boots that started the aniline craze.

“My red boots bring all the boys to the yard…”

You can tell aniline red dye from more traditional Japanese reds just by looking at it. Traditional Japanese reds were made from natural substances and had the tendency to fade quickly, leaving art historians only able to guess what the original looked like. However, aniline reds stay bright for much longer. Both the Japanese print above and the one below were dyed with aniline red dye. Can you see how overwhelming the color looks compared to older Japanese prints? It almost looks out of place, if you ask me.

If you are interested in the history of aniline red and its presence in Japan, I’d recommend this great post. Of course, there are many more colors now part of the Japanese color system that were adopted from foreign countries. Many of these colors are identifiable by their names which are often written in katakana, such as オレンジ. It seems that many people are stupefied by loaned color words in Japanese and are under the belief that the Japanese didn’t have these colors before they were imported. However, it’s not that the colors didn’t exist. Simply, the names of colors have more to do with their source and the dyes used to produce them, many of which were not present in Japan before the Meiji era.

Kimono

Traditional Japanese colors have been used in artistic fields for centuries, and kimono is one of the most notable. The colors displayed on kimono are not random. A piece of clothing so expressive it is considered an art must be thought out very cautiously. In fact, the color combinations used on kimono over the centuries have become part of Japanese color sense.

Although not everyone could afford an array of various colored kimono, geisha had the ability to set the fashion standard with their ever changing style. Below is a list of color combinations worn by geisha according to month:

• January   Pine:   sprout green and deep purple
• February   Redblossom plum:    crimson and purple
• March    Peach:   peach and khaki
• April    Cherry:    white and burgundy
• May    Orange Flower:   deadleaf yellow and purple
• June    Artemesia:   sprout green and yellow
• July    Lily:    red and deadleaf yellow
• August    Cicada wing:    cedar bark and sky blue
• September    Aster:    lavender and burgundy
• October    Bush Clover:    rose and slate blue
• November    Maple:    vermilion and grey-green
• December    Chrysanthemum:    lavender and deep blue

Over time, these color combinations have become part of the Japanese color culture and are thought of as being pleasing to the eye.

Traditional Colors in Modern Fashion

Ten or twenty years ago, most Japanese young people wouldn’t have been caught dead wearing something “traditional” (oh, the shame!). However, these days, things are different. Recently many fashion companies in Japan have been working on reviving an interest in traditional Japanese colors and styles. Now, wearing a kimono to work (in the right setting) is the uber cooliest! In a way, the last decade or so has been sort of a fashion renaissance in Harajuku.

You can get away with wearing toe socks in Japan. Noted.

Honestly, I wasn’t aware of this fact until three years ago when I attended a presentation by %6DOKIDOKI, a prominent Japanese fashion company in Harajuku. Not knowing anything about Japanese fashion, I was astounded that nearly their entire presentation revolved around the importance of the traditional Japanese colors in their designs – something I had never even heard of. They spent an hour going through their outfits bit by bit, pointing out each color they included and reveling at the brilliance of their design. As a frumpy mid-class American teenager, I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was amazed nonetheless.

6%DOKIDOKI presentation with designer Sebastian Masuda

And it’s not just Harajuku fashion models that are flaunting the traditional colors of their country. Familiar faces such as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and other J-pop idols are also rockin’ the traditional color trend and showin’ their stuff on stage.

“Pan, pan, wei wei wei?”

It seems that this new trend spurred on by Japanese fashion companies has become a matter of pride for Japanese youth, as they embrace the beauty their country’s culture has to offer. With modern technology, you can even download a traditional Japanese color chart on to your phone or other device.

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Knowing about Japan’s perception of color can tell you a lot about the Japanese people’s culture, history, and life, and being able to recognize such colors can bring Japanese works of art and literature to life. In the case of Japan, it is also pertinent to understand if you are interested in modern fashion trends.

If you get familiar with traditional Japanese colors, you’ll be sure to impress your Japanese friends because even most Japanese people don’t know the names of dentouiro- an added bonus. Do you have a favorite traditional Japanese color? I think mine is azuki iro (小豆色) because MMM azuki beans. Let me know in the comments below, yo.

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Sources:
Traditional Japanese Colors
日本の伝統色
Traditional Colors of Japan
日本の伝統色465色の色名と16進数
The Colors of Japan
 

One of the stranger assertions that you’ll hear is that one of Japan’s best features is its four, distinct seasons. That may sound benign at first, but for some, the implication is that these four seasons—winter, spring, summer, and fall—are unique characteristic of Japan, that it’s the only country in the world that enjoys this natural phenomenon.

As a foreigner, my first reaction to hearing that was one of incredulity. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! Places all over the world have four seasons, how could somebody actually believe that they only happen in Japan?!

Obviously, some this isn’t something that every single Japanese person believes and will vehemently defend, but it’s still something that’s present in the popular consciousness. In the years since I’ve heard about this belief, I’ve wondered a lot about where it comes from.

Here are some of the theories—from the absurd to the more credible—about how this belief about the four seasons came about:

Poetry

One theory I’ve heard behind the Japanese four seasons belief is that it’s derived from Chinese poetry. Japan, through its cultural ties with China, has a long, rich tradition of poetry celebrating the four seasons.

Chinese poetry and, subsequently Japanese poetry, have historically been celebrated and influential artforms in their respective cultures and around the world. You only have to look at the haiku style of poetry and its prevalence outside of Japan to see poetry’s cultural impact.

One of the most common themes of East Asian poetry is nature, and more specifically the unique feelings of the seasons. There’s even a special word for a word or phrase in poetry about the seasons: kigo (季語).

Take these poems by master poet Matsuo Basho:

Рiping autumn wind
blows with wild piercing voice
through the sliding door…

Soon they have to die,
but there is no sign of it
in cicadas’ cries.

Tis the first snow—
Just enough to bend
The gladiolus leaves!

Each of these paints a very vivid picture of a particular season, envoking different, natural phenomena—like cicada, autumn wind, and snow—to set the tone. This Japanese Life has a great post about Japanese poets celebrating the turning of the seasons with more examples.

Evidently, Korean people also sometimes make the claim that their country is unique in enjoying four seasons. This would support the Chinese poetry theory, since both Korea and Japan have a shared cultural heritage from China.

I’m not sure how Japan and Korea will settle which country truly has four seasons. This could be an issue bigger than the disputed islands! Will this be the next big diplomatic struggle between the two nations? Time will tell.

Festivals

The Japanese calendar is littered with all kinds of cultural celebrations, both national and local. Many of them are based on the turning of the season, or at the very least coincide very closely with the changing of one season to the next.

In Japan, going out to picnic and watch the cherry blossoms during hanami is an obvious, visible marker that spring has arrived. Obon often marks the end of the summer, with the ever-present cicadas providing background music to the festivities.

These nationally-celbrated holidays give a cadence to the passing of the year, marking the beginnings and ends to the seasons. Japan’s seasonal festivals are far from unique in their timing and significance—I can think of many holidays celebrated here in the US that have seasonal significant.

In the United States, Memorial Day and Labor Day bookend the summer, and harvest celebrations Halloween and Thanksgiving provide landmarks in the fall. That’s not to mention commononly religious holidays like Easter, which fits in with the whole theme of spring as a time of renewal.

It may be that the holidays and festivals in Japan are so distinctly Japanese that it can be hard to see the equivalents in other cultures. Labor Day? Is that like Obon?

Japanese Exceptionalism

One theory that Koichi mentioned in a Tofugu post years ago blames a set of fringe beliefs known as “Nihonjinron.” Nihonjinron comprises a wide set of ridiculous claims about how Japanese people are unique and, in some cases, superior to other peoples. These beliefs are ultra-nationalist and borderline (if not blatantly) racist.

Some Nihonjinron beliefs cover Japan’s supposedly unique geography, and how it’s affected Japanese biology and psychology. It’s easy to imagine how this train of thought might lead to the notion of a uniquely Japanese four seasons.

The literature blog No-Sword quotes one Nihonjinron author who, while admitting that Europe also has four seasons, notes that Japan’s climate is unique among Asia:

Japan is rich in seasonal change without widely separated extremes in temperature, and this climate must surely be the most important foundation stone on which the Japanese way of life and artistic expression rest

I should stress that these kind of Nihonjinron beliefs are, of course, absurd and far from mainstream Japanese thought; not to mention that this kind of environmental determinism is largely frowned upon in academic fields. It is, however, very easy to draw a line between these Nihonjinron beliefs and belief in Japan’s unique four seasons.

What’s In a Season?

I have to come clean and at least mention that not every place in the world has the same kind of distinct four seasons that Japan does. Many parts of the globe have climates that don’t lend themselves to seasons with neat beginnings and ends. When I think of a place like Los Angeles, it’s hard to see much difference between the seasons—it all just seems to run together.

But as long as we’re being honest, the idea of all of Japan having these discernible four seasons is questionable at best. Geographically, Japan’s not a huge place, but it’s large enough to have big variations in climate between different areas of the country. The tropical southern islands of Japan are unlikely to see the kind of snow that great poets write about, and the very northern tip of Japan is probably shivering from the cold as people in Tokyo get drunk at hanami.

Throw in the rainy seasons to the equation and it gums up the works. Do typhoons constitute their own season? Are there actually five, or even six seasons in Japan?

So clearly, the notion that Japan is the only place in the world with four, distinct seasons is a ludicrous idea that’s clearly and demonstrably not true; but the belief, and the theories behind them are endlessly fascinating, and might even lend some insight into other cultural phenomena.

Wallpapers and GIFs!

Want to watch the uniquely Japanese seasons turn? Our amazing artist Aya has provided us with some desktop backgrounds and animated GIFs of the header image. Enjoy!

Wallpaper (1280×800)
Wallpaper (2560×1440)

GIF (700×438)
GIF (1280×800)