Colours inherited from ancient Japan: the charm of beautiful traditional Japanese colours

These are more than just colours: they are traditional Japanese hues whose names themselves evoke refinement.
Here we’ve selected 30 shades of grey.
The beauty of those delicate, subtle tones is especially worth seeing.

Kasane-iro-me (also called osoi-iro-me) began with court ladies in the Heian period, for example in the layered kimono (juunihitoe). Because the silk threads of back layers were very fine and the colours of the under-layers showed through the over-garment, people took into account even those subtle inner shades. This level of sensitivity to colour is deeply admirable. Here we introduce some of those combinations.

Not only on the web: designers also use physical colour sample books to check hues carefully. One reference is the “DIC Colour Guide: Japanese Traditional Colours, 8th Edition”. First published in 1978, this “Japanese Traditional Colours” collection preserves the ancient expressions of colour in Japan — not just as a sample book for off-set printing ink, but also as a cultural material of colour. It includes more than 300 hues, each with names in Japanese and English and explanations of their origins. Also provided are indices to reproduce the colours accurately (ink formulation tables, data such as CMYK values, RGB values, Munsell values). Just looking at these colour samples is fun — why not have one in your hand?

How was it? Japanese traditional colours are very delicate and beautiful. Since ancient times, Japanese traditional colours have lived deeply in daily life and culture — in dyed and woven fabrics, paintings, crafts, poetry, and literature. As an important part of Japanese culture, we feel these must be passed on into the future. And as designers, we want to cherish this uniquely Japanese sensibility and apply it in our work for the world.

出典：東京スカイツリー　TOKYO SKY TREE「東京スカイツリーを知る」

出典：artless lnc.「スカイカフェ（鄭州、中国）」

出典：味の素株式会社「新聞・雑誌広告のご紹介」

出典：NIPPON COLORS 「日本の伝統色」

出典：Color-Sample.com 「色見本と配色サイト 」

参考資料：内田広由紀(2008)「和の色辞典」

参考資料：DICグラフィックス株式会社「DIC 日本の伝統色 第8版」