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Colors
A big thank you to Julie Lim for the following entries on colors. All are provided by her.
Colors are equally important in evoking feelings and mood. Everyone
understood the allusions associated with the colors worn. Reds were
considered sensual, and purple had an undying love connotation, most
likely from Lady Mursaki's Tales of Genji. Colors also had seasonal
appropriateness: white and green for early spring; pink, lavender and
green for late spring; yellow with maroon for summer; purple or red
with
white for the fall. Of course, many of these color combinations
followed
the seasonal flowers, which were the most comon motifs used to
designate
the seasonal dress codes. If a kimono is painted with a silver
decoration
(silver being a cool color) it is usually a summer kimono. Shochikubai:
-
pine, plum, and bamboo motifs are only seen in the winter, sakura
cherry
blossoms in the spring, iris in the early summer, chrysanthemums and
red
maples in the fall. All the colors associated with these plants and
flowrs
have their seasonal appropriateness.
Color sensibilities changed over the years as well. After the sumptuary
laws were enacted and enforced, certain colors could only be worn by
certain people. Reds made of safflowers, benibana which was very
expensive, were only to be worn by samurai class. Purple was restricted
to
the court and the upper echelon of the clergy. Dyers were clever in
using
substitute dyes for the reds and purples, thereby circumventing the
restrictions. But the laws eventually had their impact as more white
ground was employed, then eventually the bright colors shifted into
more
somber shades of indigo blues and browns, first worn by the kabuki
actors,
then adopted by the townspeople. Even the nobility, who were free to
wear
restricted clothing chose the more somber colors, mostly influenced by
the
style of dress and frugal nature of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. Of
course,
these restrictions were removed when the shogunate was abolished, but
by
then subdued colors had already become ingrained into the aesthetic of
Japan.
Ao (Grue)
Unlike most other languages, the most fundamental color terms in Japanese don't include a strong distinction between green and blue. However,
indigo was one of the most popular dyes for plant-fiber cloth (hemp and ramie before the introduction of cotton), and its scent was thought to ward off insects and poisonous
snakes. Blue was associated with the sea rather than the sky, but by the same token, it also represents motherhood as the sea surrounds, protects, and sustains the islands of
Japan. Green (midori) still seems to be considered a subset of aoi, and symbolizes youth and new life, historically carrying no strongly negative connotations.
Purple
As in the West, purple became associated with wealth and privilege due to the rarity of the dyestuff needed to create clothing of this color, though
different sources were used in the different hemispheres. Like certain other colors (see below), it was banned by Heian sumptuary laws from anyone except certain members of
the Imperial family. One of the oldest purple artifacts in Japan is an 8th-century set of Buddhist sutras written with gold ink on purple paper.
Coincidentally or not, the pen name of the author of "The Tale of Genji" also means "purple" (murasaki). Violet is often used in Japan for a winning ribbon, as opposed to the
blue ribbon traditional in the West.
The other banned colors were "kurenai", a bright fuschia-pink derived from safflower; a shade of orange (produced from overdyeing with jasmine/gardenia and dyer's
saffron) which was restricted to the crown prince; and a yellowish-brown (also from an overdyeing process) which was restricted to the emperor. However, I'm not sure
that the associations of these latter colors remain as strong in modern anime/manga symbolism as that for purple.
Red
"The color of the sacred"; the sun (ancestral Amaterasu) is culturally defaulted to red in Japan (as opposed to yellow in most of the West) and at Shinto shrines,
the entrance torii and the hakama worn by the miko are also red. Red is also associated with authority and wealth-- starting from the 7th and 8th centuries, palaces, temples,
and other official buildings were painted red due to Chinese influence, and personal signature seals were stamped with a vermilion pigment made from cinnabar. Red-lacquered
objects (bowls, combs, furniture) were objects of great value, and red lac was also used to dye silks a deep crimson. In "Ranma", Akane's name means the madder plant, which
was another dyestuff used to make red cloth.
White
Like red, white was also considered sacred, but not used as much in daily life. The inner landscape of shrines was often decked out with white stone, sand, or paper to
symbolize the absence of impurity, but white was also the color of funerals-- while brides wore white, it was usually to symbolize that by marrying out of their birth families, they had
"died" from them. Freed from funereal connotations, black was associated with formal dignity; even now, the most formal kimono for men are black (with family crests in white).
Both The Colors of Japan by Sadao Hibi and Kimono by Liza Dalby are recommended for more information. Also, these websites:
http://www.yoshinoantiques.com/kimono.html
http://www.color-guide.com/e_index.htm