Edo era
Pale Blue & Vermillion— 浅葱と朱
The faded blue of Shinsengumi jackets against shrine-gate vermillion — restrained power.
blue · 2 palettes
浅葱
Pale blue-green
Asagi (浅葱) is a mid-tone, muted blue tone. Its hex value is #6B9BB0 — that is
RGB 107, 155, 176, or HSL 198°, 30%, 55%.
Pale blue-green.
It holds 6.9:1 contrast against dark, so Asagi works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 3.0:1; on black 6.9:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Asagi appears in 2 combinations — most often paired with Shu, Gofun and Sumi.
Asagi (浅葱) is the pale green-blue of young leek shoots — literally 'shallow leek' — and one of the named colours that appears most consistently across Wada's catalogue. It sits between sky-blue and pale celadon, with enough green to read as fresh rather than cool, and enough blue to read as bright rather than vegetal. Historically it was used for under-robes in summer kimonos and for low-rank samurai garments (specifically the Shinsengumi uniform haori in mid-19th century Kyoto).
Modern usage: hospitality, wellness, summer-season editorial, beauty packaging — anywhere a 'fresh cool' reads better than 'cold cool.' Asagi is one of the colours that lets a Japandi or wabi-sabi palette feel vital instead of austere.
Asagi appears in 2 combinations from the archive. Each pairing reveals how the same color shifts character depending on its neighbours.
From the archive
Launching soon. The free archive stays free, always.