Heian era
Crimson & Navy— 紅と紺
Deep safflower crimson against navy — the courtly contrast of Heian-era robes and formal Edo textiles.
#F4EEE0
yellow · 8 palettes
Gofun
胡粉
Chalk white
About Gofun
Gofun (胡粉) is a light, muted yellow tone. Its hex value is #F4EEE0 — that is
RGB 244, 238, 224, or HSL 42°, 48%, 92%.
Chalk white.
It holds 18.2:1 contrast against dark, so Gofun works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 1.2:1; on black 18.2:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Gofun appears in 8 combinations — most often paired with Kon, Shu and Sumi.
The story of Gofun
Gofun (胡粉) is the chalk-white pigment made from crushed and aged oyster shells. It's the white of Japanese-style folding screens, the priming layer beneath nihonga paintings, the bright base coat on Hina dolls. Unlike titanium white or zinc white in Western painting, gofun has tooth — a slight matte chalk quality that reads as material rather than as default 'white.'
In a wabi-sabi or japandi palette gofun is the anchor: the warm-cool neutral that everything else rests on. It pulls slightly off pure white, toward the colour of bone or unbleached paper, which is exactly what differentiates a 'Japandi white' from an IKEA-modern white.
Colours that go with Gofun
From a standard colour wheel, Gofun anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
Complementary
#F4EEE0 #E0E6F4
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
Analogous
#F4EEE0 #F4E4E0 #F0F4E0
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
Triadic
#F4EEE0 #E0F4EE #EEE0F4
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
Split-complementary
#F4EEE0 #E0F0F4 #E4E0F4
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
How to use Gofun
Gofun is a light, muted tone (HSL 42°, 48%, 92%), which makes it a soft background or a light accent. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a dark background (18.2:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use dark lettering. Pair it with its complement (#E0E6F4) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#F4E4E0 and #F0F4E0) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Palettes with Gofun
Gofun appears in 8 combinations from the archive. Each pairing reveals how the same color shifts character depending on its neighbours.
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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