. . . COLORS and Kigo - grey

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. Edo craftsmen　江戸の職人 .
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The four colors of four haiku seasons
The five colors of Buddhism
. Colors and Haiku .




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According to Henry Dreyfus, Japanese, in contrast with Westerners, grasp colors on an intuitively horizontal plane, and pay little heed to the influences of light. Colors whether intense of soft, are identified not so much on the basis of reflected light or shadow,
but in terms of the meaning or feeling associated with them.
The adjectives used to describe colors, like iki (sophisticated or chic), shibui (subdued or restrained), or hannari (gay or mirthful), tend to be those that stress feelings rather than the values of colors in relation to each other.

According to Henry Dreyfus, Black, sumi, is the color of mystery and solemnity; the color of the night. Black expresses the depths of the unknown, and encourages the imagination of a different world from that of daylight realities. Used by itself, black can represent bad luck or misfortune.

According to Henry Dreyfus, indigo blue, ai, mirrors the color of the vast ocean surrounding the Japanese islands. This shade of blue is very commonly seen in Japanese art and clothing.

According to Henry Dreyfus, gold, kin, can evoke the sensation of looking upon waving fields of ripened rice stalks. Gold is also associated with royalty. It represents the color of the heavens, and is used to decorate statues of the Buddha and religious temples.

According to Henry Dreyfus, green, midori is regarded as the color of eternal life, as seen in evergreens which never change their color from season to season. In the word midori, both trees and vegetation are implied. One characteristic of Japanese culture can be found in the fusion of life and nature.

According to Henry Dreyfus, it is popularly felt that red, the color of blood and fire, represents life and vitality. Red also signifies the color of the sun: a symbol of energy, radiating its vitalizing life-force into human beings. Red is also looked upon as a sensual color, and can be associated with man's most profound urges and impulses. Ironically, red cats symbolize bad luck.

According to Henry Dreyfus, the word for red and white, Kohaku, is pronounced as one word in Japanese. Ko means red, while haku translates as white. Their use together immediately signifies happiness and celebration to the Japanese viewer. The combination of red and white in the decorative ornaments used on wedding or engagement presents -noshi or kaishi- has a compelling quality that suggests man's urge to create a bond between his own life and that of the gods. Red and white are also the colors of the uniforms that shrine maidens wear (denoting these colors divine nature.)
source : www.three-musketeers.net


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Grey, Gray (hai-iro, hyaku nezu )

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity
for other colors, see below.

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Explanation

gray, grey, grau, nezumi-iro 鼠色
ash gray, hai-iro, kaishoku 灰色（かいしょく・はいいろ）

In the Edo period, when showing off was not allowed, the colors were given subdued names too, all hundred shades of grey, Edo Hyaku nezu 江戸百鼠.
These shades were very fashionable for kimono. They had very delicate shades of each color.

There were also 48 different shades of green and the 100 gray shades, in a famous saying: shijuuhatcha hyakunezumi 四十八茶、百鼠.
yonjuuhatcha hyakunezu
Look at them here.
http://www.colordic.org/w/

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Rikyu Rat Grey, Rikyu nezu
利休鼠（りきゅうねず） Rikyuu



緑味のある鼠色をいいますが、利休の名をつけたのは言うまでもなく、織田信長や豊臣秀吉の茶頭であった桃山時代の茶人、千利休にちなむものですが、利休が好んだという意味ではなく、抹茶の緑色からの連想で後世の人が名づけたものです。他にも利休茶などがあります。江戸時代に愛好されたようですが、明治に入ってからも流行色となっています。
http://yuzen.net/color/gray/rikyunezu.htm


. Sen Rikyuu, Sen Rikyū 千利休 Sen Rikyu, Sen no Rikyu　 .


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quote
Sen Rikyu, Sen Rikyū 千利休　
1522 - April 21, 1591 (some dates give March 28.)
陰暦二月二十八日 28th day of the 2nd lunar month

the historical figure with the most profound influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha. Rikyū is known by many names; for convenience this article will refer to him as Rikyū throughout.

There are three iemoto (sōke), or "head houses" of the Japanese Way of Tea, that are directly descended from Rikyū: the Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushakōjisenke, all three of which are dedicated to passing forward the teachings of their mutual family founder, Rikyū.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


If you have one pot
And can make your tea in it
That will do quite well.
How much does he lack himself
Who must have a lot of things?

Sen Rikyu

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quote
The Nature of Rikyu Grey
..... If one is going to name a certain sensation, formulate an outline of its features, trace its history or search for the origin of that sensation, it must inspire a profound sympathy yet awake a certain critical awareness. For me, such a sensation is "Rikyu grey." A long philosophical essay :
source : KISHO KUROKAWA



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Worldwide use

Grau, mausgrau


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Things found on the way

RIKYU GREY AND THE ART OF AMBIGUITY
The Japan Architect, June 1979

If one is going to name a certain sensation, formulate an outline of its features, trace its history or search for the origin of that sensation, it must inspire a profound sympathy yet awake a certain critical awareness. For me, such a sensation is "Rikyu grey." The sensation of Rikyu grey represents an aesthetic of an ambivalent or multiple meaning.

Grey was generally considered a vile color conjuring up images of rats or ashes and had never been popular. But when it became known as Rikyu grey, it was better appreciated; in the latter part of the Edo period (1600-1868) it gained tremendous popularity, along with brown and indigo (navy) blue, at the embodiment of the aesthetic ideal of iki. Iki in this period is a complex concept but may be simply described as "richness in sobriety."

As the cult of tea spread beyond the upper classes to be practiced in the homes of ordinary people, so did the taste for this grey color. People took pleasure in naming all manner of colors containing the element of charcoal grey such as Fukagawa grey, silver grey, indigo grey, reddish grey, lavender grey, grape grey, brown grey, dove grey and lentil grey. When various colors are mixed until no trace of any specific color remains, it is called simply "grey." All these colors have chromas of very low intensity and their subtle differences of tone had great appeal in that period. This taste in colors prevailed throughout Edo culture from the Genroku period beginning in 1688 and continuing throughout the eighteenth century.


Read about this color and Japanese Architecture
- KISHO KUROKAWA -

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Rikyu gray, Rikyu nezu
Gray which the green of powdered green tea.

雨はふるふる、城ヶ島の磯に、
利休鼠の雨がふる。
雨は眞珠か、夜明の霧か、
それともわたしの忍び泣き。
舟はゆくゆく通り矢のはなを、
濡れて帆あげたぬしの舟。
ええ、舟は櫓でやる、櫓は唄でやる、
唄は船頭さんの心意氣。
雨はふるふる、日はうす曇る。
舟はゆくゆく、帆がかすむ。

It continues drizzling. at the rocky shore of Jogashima.
---The rain of Rikyu gray .
Is the rain pearls, or fog of dawn, or my subdued sobbing.
A ship sails around the tip of a Toriya
--- Your ship which hoisted its wet sail.
I row a ship .
I pull an oar to a song.
The song is the captain's spirit.
It continues drizzling.
The sun hides in thin clouds.
The ship sails. The sail dims.

http://members2.jcom.home.ne.jp/kitahara-hakushu/work/jyougashimanoame/

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Japanese Color Names

... ... ... ... List with color samples
cherry-grey, sakura nezumi 桜鼠（さくらねずみ）
plum-grey, ume nezumi 梅鼠（うめねずみ）
willow green grey, yanagi nezumi 柳鼠（やなぎねずみ）
harbour grey, minato nezumi 湊鼠（みなとねずみ）
...........fukagawa nezumi 深川鼠 （ふかがわねずみ）
indigo grey, ai nezumi 藍鼠（あいねずみ）
wisteria grey, fuji nezumi 藤鼠（ふじねずみ）
dove feather grey, hatoba nezumi 鳩羽鼠（はとばねずみ）
grape grey, budoo nezumi 葡萄鼠（ぶどうねず ・えびねずみ）
red faded grey, beni keshi nezumi 紅消鼠（べにけしねずみ）
white grey, shiro nezumi 白鼠（しろねずみ）

bea8a7 .. silver grey, gin nezumi 銀鼠（ぎんねずみ）
7b6d5b .. plain grey, sunezumi 素鼠（すねずみ）
513d39 .. faded grey, dobunezumi 丼鼠・溝鼠（どぶねずみ）

and many many more colors:
http://www.colordic.org/w


e1642f .. 江戸茶（えどちゃ）looks more of a red shade
Edo Green, Edo Tea Color, edocha 江戸茶（えどちゃ）
http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Sakura/6002/washokuzukan.html

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The Colors of Japan 日本の伝統色
Edo murasaki 江戸紫色 purple
油色 - a kind of yellow from rapeflower seeds 菜種
銀色 - silver pots and plates - 金銀 gold and silver
山葵色 / 委佐俾 - wasabi green
煤竹色 - dark brown bamboo (with soot color)
白茶色 - white (sugar) color - 和三盆 wasanbon sugar
憲法黒色 - black, Kenpo black and indigo - Yoshioka Kenpo 吉岡拳法
source : poyoland.jugem.jp


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HAIKU

a shade of grey on my cherry blossoms - sakuranezu 桜鼠

. Gabi Greve, Introducing Shades of Gray .

sudden rain - my world reduced to shades of gray

The gray of this background is called Genji Nezumi Mouse Gray
#888084

More of my Info and Haiku about GRAY !


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狐火や利休鼠の雨が降る
kitsunebi ya Rikyu ne no ame ga furu

fox fire -
the rain falls so gray,
Rikyu gray
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Gendai Haiku Kyokai
http://www.gendaihaiku.gr.jp/haikukai/result/08_touku.htm

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箱根山利休鼠にしぐれをり
Hakone yama Rikyu nezu ni shigureori

Hakone Mountains -
a cold rain falls,
Rikyu Gray Rain
(tr. Gabi Greve)

Shimizu Miyoko 清水 美夜湖

Gendai Haiku Kyokai
http://www.gendaihaiku.gr.jp/haikukai/result/34_senku.htm

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morning sky--
clearing away the grey
to a sunny day

Gillena Cox, T&T, 2006


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Related words

kurenai くれない【紅】 crimson red, deep red

. WKD : The color RED in Japanese Culture 　　


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soga iro 承和色 (そがいろ）light yellow of the soga chrysanthemum


torinoko iro とりのこいろ / 鳥の子色 "chicken color" whitish
color of an egg
#FFF6DC


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***** asagi あさぎ - 浅黄 - 浅葱 hues of light yellow, green and blue

***** BLACK (kuro, koku)

***** BLUE (aoi) the color of sky and water

***** GREEN (midori) and BLUE-GREEN (aoi)

***** RED, the color red (kurenai, aka, shu)

***** WHITE (shiroi, haku)

***** Violett and Purple : 紫 MURASAKI in Haiku

***** YELLOW and Gold and Yamabuki



. Goshiki 五色 "the five colors"
a Buddhist concept


. Colorful Haiku Collection .


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plant kigo for early summer

rikyuubai 利休梅 (りきゅうばい) "Rikyu plum"
..... 利久梅（りきゅうばい）
リキュウバイ - Exochorda racemosa
Pearlbush or Common Pearlbush, is a species of plant in the rose family.

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