What is in the "Japanese Color Palettes" collection?

Japanese Color Palettes is a curated collection of 24 historical color palettes from Sanzo Wada's "A Dictionary of Color Combinations" (1933). Wada's 1933 dictionary — the definitive source for Japanese color tradition.

Can I embed or share the "Japanese Color Palettes" collection?

Yes. Use the embed iframe (560×320) shown on the page for blogs, Notion pages, or design reviews. Each embedded palette links back to its full detail page. Share image (1200×630) auto-generated per collection. License: CC BY 4.0.

Where does the "Japanese Color Palettes" source material come from?

Source: Sanzo Wada, "A Dictionary of Color Combinations" (1933, Seigensha Art Publishing 2010 reprint). The Wada catalog is in the public domain. Curation, descriptions, and groupings here are CC BY 4.0 licensed.

Collection · 24 palettes

Japanese Color Palettes

Q: How was the "Japanese Color Palettes" collection curated?

Editorial curation by colorcombinations.org. The Japanese color tradition is one of the most precisely named and historically layered in the world. The Heian court codified hundreds of kasane no irome — seasonal layered robe combinations. The Edo merchant class developed its own restrained vocabulary of deep indigos, warm browns, and muted golds as a counter-aesthetic to imperial display. Sanzo Wada documented 348 of these combinations in 1933, drawing on that entire tradition. This collection covers the full breadth: court colors from the 8th century through industrial-era textile palettes from the early 20th. Each one is historically grounded, named in both Japanese and English, and immediately usable. Palettes are grouped by thematic resonance — mood, era, or visual language — not algorithmic similarity.

Wada's 1933 dictionary — the definitive source for Japanese color tradition.

The Japanese color tradition is one of the most precisely named and historically layered in the world. The Heian court codified hundreds of kasane no irome — seasonal layered robe combinations. The Edo merchant class developed its own restrained vocabulary of deep indigos, warm browns, and muted golds as a counter-aesthetic to imperial display. Sanzo Wada documented 348 of these combinations in 1933, drawing on that entire tradition. This collection covers the full breadth: court colors from the 8th century through industrial-era textile palettes from the early 20th. Each one is historically grounded, named in both Japanese and English, and immediately usable.

Heian era

Crimson & Navy— 紅と紺

Deep safflower crimson against navy — the courtly contrast of Heian-era robes and formal Edo textiles.

Heian era

Cherry Blossom & Young Bamboo— 桜と若竹

The softest pink of cherry blossoms set beside young bamboo green — spring, captured.

Heian era

Wisteria & Indigo— 藤と藍

The soft lavender of wisteria blossoms against deep indigo.

Muromachi era

Matcha & Raw Silk— 抹茶と生成

Whisked matcha green against the color of raw silk — the still life of a tea bowl.

Heian era

Lapis & Chalk— 瑠璃と胡粉

Lapis lazuli blue against oyster-shell white — the color of Buddhist scripture.

Kamakura era

Spring Green & Ink— 萌黄と墨

Young shoot green against sumi ink — the two extremes of the Japanese calligrapher's world.

Kamakura era

Red Lead & Ink— 鉛丹と墨

The dense orange-red of lead oxide pigment struck against ink black.

Meiji era

Deep Indigo & Cream— 紺と生成

The darkest indigo against unbleached cream — the color of a Meiji schoolboy's uniform.

Edo era

Pale Blue & Vermillion— 浅葱と朱

The faded blue of Shinsengumi jackets against shrine-gate vermillion — restrained power.

Muromachi era

Grass Yellow & Rikyū Grey— 刈安と利休鼠

Wild grass yellow tempered by the muted grey favored by the tea master Sen no Rikyū.

Heian era

Royal Purple & Silver— 紫と銀

Imperial purple set against lunar silver — Heian courtly luxury at its quietest.

Muromachi era

Celadon & Unbleached— 青磁と生成

Celadon pottery green beside the unbleached warmth of raw silk.

Heian era

Pink Dianthus & Water— 撫子と水色

The soft pink of wild dianthus beside the translucent blue of mountain water.

Edo era

Kite Brown & Gold— 鳶と黄金

The warm brown of a kite's wing lit by afternoon gold.

Heian era

Ao & White— 青と白

The classical Japanese 'ao' — an ambiguous blue-green — against pure white.

Muromachi era

Bellflower & Ink— 桔梗と墨

The deep violet of the bellflower set against ink — formal, discreet.

Edo era

Light Pink & Tea— 薄紅と茶

A whisper of pink against tea brown — the tone of an Edo-period lacquer sweet box.

Muromachi era

Scorched Brown & Unbleached— 焦茶と生成

The dark brown of scorched wood against unbleached hemp — quiet materials.

Edo era

Indigo Blue & Silver— 縹と銀

Mid-grade indigo with the quiet sheen of silver — an understated Edo merchant robe.

Edo era

Edo Purple & Mouse Grey— 江戸紫と鼠

The cool Edo purple worn by kabuki actors against mouse grey — theatrical understatement.

Showa era

English Red & Cerulian Blue

Plate 1 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — English Red, Cerulian Blue.

Showa era

Yellow Orange & Dark Tyrian Blue

Plate 2 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Yellow Orange, Dark Tyrian Blue.

Showa era

Raw Sienna & Pale Lemon Yellow

Plate 3 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Raw Sienna, Pale Lemon Yellow.

Showa era

Isabella Color & Red Violet

Plate 4 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Isabella Color, Red Violet.

Embed this collection

Drop a preview of this collection into any blog post, Notion page, or design review. Each palette links back to its full detail page.

<iframe src="https://colorcombinations.org/embed/collection/japanese/" width="560" height="320" frameborder="0" style="border-radius:8px;overflow:hidden;" title="Japanese Color Palettes — colorcombinations.org"></iframe>

Preview

From the archive

Support the archive The full catalog, on your disk, as a thank-you.

All 378 palettes (348 Wada + 30 editorial) in five formats
Figma design tokens (W3C-spec JSON, drag into any file)
Tailwind v4 + v3 configs — drop into any project
CSS custom properties — every plate, one stylesheet
378 museum SVG plates — print-ready at any size
Full JSON — colors, names, eras, moods, dominant hues

See what's inside

Launching soon. The free archive stays free, always.

Library

Colour books worth owning

The theory and reference behind palettes like this — recommended on Amazon.

Sanzo Wada

A Dictionary of Color Combinations

The 2010 Seigensha republication of the 1933 original. Japanese import.

Every combination in it is already browsable free here, hex values and all. Buy this one for the object rather than the data — Seigensha's matte plates and Japanese binding, or a citable copy of the 1933 original. If you want plates this archive doesn't have, Vol. 2 is the one.

View on Amazon
Sanzo Wada

A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2

Seigensha, 2020. Japanese import.

Wada's 1935–1938 follow-ups: 72 plates on the Japanese seasons and 165 drawn from early-century fashion, interior, and graphic design. Not in Vol. 1. Not in this archive. The book itself is a design object — Japanese binding, matte pages, zero captions.

View on Amazon
Josef Albers

Interaction of Color

50th Anniversary Edition, Yale University Press.

The most important book on how colors behave next to each other. Still the default reference in art schools.

View on Amazon

Torn between the two Wada dictionaries? Vol 1 vs Vol 2, compared plate by plate →

Book links are Amazon Associates affiliate links. Your price is unchanged; a small commission supports the archive. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Studio

Off the screen

You have the japanese color palettes in front of you. These are the materials a colour study like this actually gets made with.

Pantone

Color Bridge Guide Set — coated & uncoated

This site hands you hex codes. Color Bridge is the deck that shows what an RGB or HTML value becomes as CMYK ink, and which Pantone spot sits nearest it — the translation step between a screen palette and a printed one. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both stocks.
View on Amazon
Pantone

Color Bridge Guide — coated

The coated half on its own — Pantone to CMYK, RGB and HTML in a single fan. The smaller entry point if your work only ever goes onto coated stock.
View on Amazon
Calibrite

ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer

A spectrophotometer profiles the whole chain — display, printer, projector, scanner — so the colour you picked is the colour that comes out the other end. The full-fidelity option for work that ends up printed.
View on Amazon
Calibrite

Display Plus HL colorimeter kit

A colorimeter calibrates the monitor itself. Worth saying plainly: an uncalibrated screen is the most common reason a palette that looked right on your desk looks wrong everywhere else.
View on Amazon
Calibrite

ColorChecker Passport Photo 2

A pocket target for fixing white balance and exposure at the moment of capture — the step before any colour correction, if your palette starts from a photograph rather than a screen.
View on Amazon
Kuretake

Gansai Tambi 24 — Art Nouveau

Gansai are traditional Japanese watercolour pans — dense, matte and easy to mix, the closest everyday medium to the flat printed colour Wada's plates were made in. This is the Art Nouveau-themed 'II' edition, a different 24 to the standard set.
View on Amazon
Kuretake

Gansai Tambi 36

The larger pan set. More range means mixing toward a specific plate rather than approximating it from six colours.
View on Amazon
Strathmore

300 Series watercolour pad, 140 lb cold press

140 lb cold press is the weight that takes a wet wash without buckling — the paper most colour studies end up on.
View on Amazon
Pentel

Fude Touch brush sign pen

A felt brush tip for the labelling and linework around a swatch study — the annotation half of a colour notebook.
View on Amazon
Pantone

Formula Guide — coated & uncoated

When a palette leaves the screen, this is the shared vocabulary between you and the press. Coated and uncoated because the same ink is not the same colour on both.
View on Amazon

Amazon Associates affiliate links — your price is unchanged and a small commission keeps the archive free. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Japanese Color Palettes

Share this collection

Crimson & Navy— 紅と紺

Cherry Blossom & Young Bamboo— 桜と若竹

Wisteria & Indigo— 藤と藍

Matcha & Raw Silk— 抹茶と生成

Lapis & Chalk— 瑠璃と胡粉

Spring Green & Ink— 萌黄と墨

Red Lead & Ink— 鉛丹と墨

Deep Indigo & Cream— 紺と生成

Pale Blue & Vermillion— 浅葱と朱

Grass Yellow & Rikyū Grey— 刈安と利休鼠

Royal Purple & Silver— 紫と銀

Celadon & Unbleached— 青磁と生成

Pink Dianthus & Water— 撫子と水色

Kite Brown & Gold— 鳶と黄金

Ao & White— 青と白

Bellflower & Ink— 桔梗と墨

Light Pink & Tea— 薄紅と茶

Scorched Brown & Unbleached— 焦茶と生成

Indigo Blue & Silver— 縹と銀

Edo Purple & Mouse Grey— 江戸紫と鼠

English Red & Cerulian Blue

Yellow Orange & Dark Tyrian Blue

Raw Sienna & Pale Lemon Yellow

Isabella Color & Red Violet

Embed this collection

Support the archive The full catalog, on your disk, as a thank-you.

Looking for a combination we don’t have yet?