Heian era
Cherry Blossom & Young Bamboo— 桜と若竹
The softest pink of cherry blossoms set beside young bamboo green — spring, captured.
#F9D5E0
pink · 1 palette
Sakura
桜
Cherry blossom pink
About Sakura
Sakura (桜) is a light, vivid pink tone. Its hex value is #F9D5E0 — that is
RGB 249, 213, 224, or HSL 342°, 75%, 91%.
Cherry blossom pink.
It holds 15.6:1 contrast against dark, so Sakura works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 1.3:1; on black 15.6:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Sakura appears in 1 combination — most often paired with Wakatake, Kinari and Matsuba.
Colours that go with Sakura
From a standard colour wheel, Sakura anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
Complementary
#F9D5E0 #D5F9EE
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
Analogous
#F9D5E0 #F9D5F2 #F9DCD5
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
Triadic
#F9D5E0 #E0F9D5 #D5E0F9
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
Split-complementary
#F9D5E0 #D5F9DC #D5F2F9
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
How to use Sakura
Sakura is a light, vivid tone (HSL 342°, 75%, 91%), which makes it a soft background or a light accent. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a dark background (15.6:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use dark lettering. Pair it with its complement (#D5F9EE) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#F9D5F2 and #F9DCD5) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Palettes with Sakura
Sakura appears in 1 combination from the archive.
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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