Red Is A Special Color In Japanese Culture

I introduced traditional rouge made from a flower called Benibana (Red-flower) in my previous post on the September 20th. Actually red color has been a special color in Japanese culture since ancient times. 

Ancient Japanese people believed that red color can protect people against evil and disease, then it was used at celebration ceremonies and critical junctures of life such as new year celebrations, weddings, childbirths, and so on. 

Regarding the traditional cosmetic rouge which I have introduced was not only for lip colors but also used for eyeliners and eye-shadows, and blushers. Probably people wished to avoid bad lucks by wearing red color at events. In addition, red color has also been used a lot for structures of Japanese Shinto shrines and Buddhism temples as you can see in the photo on the lower left hand side.

After modern times, I guess people are not so believing in the power of red color but still using it for celebration time and important turning points of life as a traditional custom. So you would find red color often at ceremonies. Moreover the color combination of  "red and white" has been the most common color set for celebration. Thus, when people hear/see "red and white", it would automatically brings some happy image of celebrations. 

One more thing, actually Japanese word for "baby" is "Aka-go", "Aka-chan" or "Aka-nbou", and the first part of them "Aka" means "Red". With direct translation, the meaning of these words are "Red-child", "Red-chan", and "Red-bou". (The "chan" and "bou" are words to be attached when people call a person or a creature with friendly feeling.) 

In general most people call babies "Aka-chan (Red-chan)".  It might sound funny but to put it in extreme saying Japanese people are calling babies "Red"!

So, red is really a special color for Japanese people!

A View Of Sunset With Sakura-color in Sakura season

It was a misty day yesterday, and somehow the sunset became Sakura(cherry blossoms)-color as if the cloud is reflecting the full blooming Sakura flowers on the ground.

I didn not make up the word "Sakura-color" , Japanese use the word “Sakura-Iro(Sakura color)” when they want to express delicate light pink color. 

On the other hand, the direct translation of pink color in Japanese is “Peach color(Momo-Iro)” because peach flowers have stronger pink.

However, nowadays people use the English-Japanese conbination “Pink-Iro(pink color)” more commonly. People still use “Sakura-Iro” but seldom use “Momo-Iro”, and “Pink-Iro” became a Japanese word.