![]() Of course, just like in the West, not everyone in modern Japan is worried or knowledgeable about tradition and superstition, but it’s worth knowing, nonetheless – especially if you’re interested in Japanese culture. While you’re here, why not go beyond the Japanese words for different colors? Here are some fun facts about the names for colors and their cultural associations in Japan. You can learn Japanese with the world’s largest language-learning community on Busuu. ![]() Want to add more color to your language learning? Lesson number one: the Japanese word for color? Iro (kanji: 色, hiragana: いろ). See, while many people ask about lucky Japanese colors, Japan doesn’t necessarily have lucky and unlucky colors – but the colors do have certain cultural associations that we can review. When you’re learning Japanese, one of the best things you can do to add texture to your conversation – and make sure you can make yourself understood in a pinch – is to learn your Japanese colors.Īfter all, if your vocabulary fails you, knowing how to tell someone the color of the shirt you want to buy or the train line you need to take can be a good start!įortunately, we’re here with a handy chart to help you learn Japanese color names and some extra intel to help you understand the meanings of different colors in Japanese culture. (It is a further twist to this word game, that the novel's Murasaki, the Lady of the West Wing, though certainly turning into a shining example of love and constancy, ends her life in pious resignation, with a jealous demon appearing at her bedside - thereby destroying Genji (the hero).What does it mean to have a yellow beak? And what color should you wear to a traditional Japanese wedding? Thus, in a word association game very characteristic of Japanese poetry, the similarity between the two colors – the deep purple of the violet, and the light purple of wisteria – led to the name Murasaki, a well-known name in Japanese literature. This lady Fujitsubo is little Murasaki's aunt. Genji, in his poem, names the murasaki or purple gromwell, because its color resembles the color of wisteria (in Japanese, fuji) thereby obliquely referring to Fujitsubo, "the Lady of the Wisteria Court", a woman he is violently in love with for the first part of the novel. Other translations include lavender, as used by Edward Seidensticker in his English version of Genji violet and violet root, which in Japanese poetry denotes love and constancy. Murasaki ( 紫) is the Japanese word for the color purple. How glad I would be to pick and soon to make mine that little wild plant sprung up from the very root shared by the murasaki. The name Murasaki is inspired by a poem that the novel's hero, Genji, improvises when contemplating his first meeting with the novel's heroine, then a little girl who will grow up to be "Murasaki": In most commentaries and translations, she is simply referred to as "Murasaki" for ease of identification and to improve readability.Ī Word Game, or, a Famous Color in Literature As such, the Genji character Murasaki is often referred to as the "Lady of the West Wing". The name remained a pseudonym, as due to court manners of the author's time (the Heian period, 794–1185), it was considered unacceptably familiar and vulgar to freely address people by either their personal or family names within the novel, the character herself, too, is unnamed, as most of the book's characters are never identified by any name, but by their rank and title (in the case of male persons), the rank and title of their male relatives (in the case of female persons), or after the name of their habitation (in the case of the great court ladies).
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