“Japan is a country filled with a mystical blue color,” said Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), who wrote countless books about the country. Indigo blue, called ai-iro in Japan, was used by everyone from commoners to samurai. To the foreigners who flocked to the newly opened country in the late 19th century, it must have seemed that Japan was bathed in it.

But Japanese indigo was not the only mystical color. Japan had myriads of colors that were just as mystical as ai-iro.

Unfortunately, many of these colors wouldn’t survive Japan’s modernization. Even the ubiquitous ai-iro faded from the Japanese consciousness as synthetic technology increasingly took over after 1880.

This change was so dramatic and complete that for example dyer’s knotweed, the plant that provides the raw dye for indigo, had almost vanished from the Japanese landscape by the 1970s.

Many of these colors appear to have been lost forever. I can’t count the times that I have been told by Japanese artists, usually in textile or graphic design, that a certain traditional color can not be made anymore today.

Traditional aizome dyers at work with indigo

Nonetheless, with the new-found popularity of kimono and yukata (a kind of summer kimono), traditional Japanese colors are making a come-back. More and more young people are learning the traditional skills, and fashion designers are once again using these colors in their creations.

It is a come-back that has been slowly taking root over the past 20 to 30 years or so, but it is now given new impetus because so many young Japanese are rediscovering their own culture.

Over the next twelve weeks, we will delve into these traditional colors; every Monday a new article. No explanations or descriptions, just lots of photos and color samples; including many prints from the past. I hope you will find it inspiring and find a use for some of these colors in your own life or design.

As you get to know these traditional colors, let me know in the comments how YOU are planning to use, or are already using, them. I’d love to see your interpretations!

Articles in this series:

1. Traditional Japanese Colors
2. Traditional Japanese Colors – Modern Trad

Top image: Indigo dyed (aizome) thread dries outside in the city of Ome, Tokyo Prefecture. Photos by Kjeld Duits.