Edo era
Pale Blue & Vermillion— 浅葱と朱
The faded blue of Shinsengumi jackets against shrine-gate vermillion — restrained power.
42 named colors · 20 combinations
Blue Color Combinations.
Indigo, navy, and sky blue pairings from the Wada catalog. Kon (deep indigo) is the most storied Japanese blue — once expensive as lapis lazuli, now synonymous with Japan's textile heritage. Ai-iro (indigo blue) and noshime (dark indigo) complete the spectrum.
Named colors
42 blue colors in the archive.
- Antwarp Blue #007190 13 palettes
- Salvia Blue #97acc8 13 palettes
- Slate Color #34454c 13 palettes
- Blue #006eb8 12 palettes
- Violet #4f4086 12 palettes
- Benzol Green #00978d 11 palettes
- Sea Green #00b49b 11 palettes
- Violet Blue #40456a 11 palettes
- Calamine BLue #78cdd0 10 palettes
- Deep Lyons Blue #1c4286 10 palettes
- Light Glaucous Blue #a5c8d1 10 palettes
- Green Blue #099197 9 palettes
- Pale King's Blue #a7d4e4 9 palettes
- Cerulian Blue #0093a5 8 palettes
- Dull Violet Black #1e0e3f 8 palettes
- Dusky Green #004f46 8 palettes
- Helvetia Blue #005b8d 8 palettes
- Dark Tyrian Blue #12354e 7 palettes
- Deep Indigo #051230 7 palettes
- Grayish Lavender - A #b5b1d8 7 palettes
- Nile Blue #bce4e5 7 palettes
- Olympic Blue #5a82b3 7 palettes
- Vandar Poel's Blue #064f6e 7 palettes
- Deep Slate Green #112f2c 6 palettes
- Venice Green #62c6bf 6 palettes
- Blue Violet #6450a1 5 palettes
- Dark Medici Blue #547076 4 palettes
- Dark Soft Violet #66629c 3 palettes
- Kon 紺 #1B2A4E 3 palettes
- Light Porcelain Green #00908a 3 palettes
- Ai 藍 #1C3D5A 2 palettes
- Artemesia Green #709390 2 palettes
- Asagi 浅葱 #6B9BB0 2 palettes
- Peacock Blue #00939b 2 palettes
- Ao 青 #3A7D7B
- Edo-murasaki 江戸紫 #5E4A8C
- Gunjō 群青 #264A6B
- Hanada 縹 #3C6E8F
- Kikyō 桔梗 #5B4B8A
- Mizu-iro 水色 #B4D6E5
- Ruri 瑠璃 #1E4B8A
- Sora 空 #7AB2D3
Colours that go with Blue
From a standard colour wheel, Blue anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
Complementary
#1A3C6B #6B491A
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
Analogous
#1A3C6B #1A656B #201A6B
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
Triadic
#1A3C6B #6B1A3C #3C6B1A
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
Split-complementary
#1A3C6B #6B201A #656B1A
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
How to use Blue
Blue is a deep, vivid tone (HSL 215°, 61%, 26%), which makes it a grounding background or strong accent. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a light background (11.0:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use light lettering. Pair it with its complement (#6B491A) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#1A656B and #201A6B) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Combinations
20 blue-dominant color combinations.
Every palette in the archive where blue is the dominant hue — from Sanzo Wada's 348 historical plates plus editorial deep-dives.
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
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Library
Colour books worth owning
Colour theory, history and the references designers keep close — recommended on Amazon.
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