top of page
< Back

Passing judgment on color

I developed a strong interest in color as a result of the training top saga. In bringing the reader up to speed, sometime later, I was greatly surprised when my grandmother lectured me on the huge number of different shades of white and black that existed in the surrounding world. Upon hearing her reasoning, I concluded that what I had previously known about such monotones was grossly incorrect. Indeed, at the time, I had only really been aware of a shade of white used in paint, and the different shade that was often seen in standard drawing paper. Subsequent to her treatise, I found myself paying much closer attention to just how much white (in its myriad shades) dominated the neighborhood around me.


To offer some examples of what I discovered all those years ago, behind the shade of white that was then used to paint motor vehicles, I noticed touches of other colors such as reds and blues, along with browns and greens. Meanwhile, within those vehicles painted red, I noted blacks, yellows, and browns, etc., as they drove past. Likewise, when growing up, I also enjoyed passing judgment and breaking down into groups the colors used by the different manufacturers. Further on, when I was about 20 years old, rather than any interest in modern industrial hues, I instead bought a thick dictionary of color upon being made aware of the various vegetable dyes that had been used in Japan since ancient times. Concerning the tome, rather than it classifying matters in terms that I then understood, it instead aligned certain colors with one another. What got me even more interested in the topic was the idea that each individual shade had a name drawn from Japan’s traditional flora and fauna, or from other natural phenomena. I feel that gaining such knowledge greatly helped me in my subsequent career. Likewise, as my father’s evaluative boundaries differed from my own, I am readily conscious that around me there are people whose abilities to perceive and distinguish between colors far outstrip my own efforts.

Passing judgment on color

© 2023 Ikai Yuichi All rights reserved.

bottom of page