↑ What is this color? Green or Blue?
For Japanese native speakers, green is often part of blue. For example,
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Green traffic lights are called “ao” (blue) shingō.
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Green vegetables and apples are called “ao” or “aoi” (blue) vegetables and apples.
In Japanese literature, blue is used to describe young adulthood. “Seishun” (青春) is literally “blue spring.” The word originally comes from Chinese. The beginning is that Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki (夏目漱石) used it as the meaning of youth in his book Sanshirō (三四郎).
The other example is the color of the sky. It is blue. Do you think so?
How about the color of water?
In Japanese, it is mizuiro (水色), a light blue color.
A long time ago, I wrote about color perception. One day, my daughter drew a yellow sun. Japanese kids usually draw the sun as red. In Japanese, Japan is 日本, which is 日 (sun) and 本 (origin). This literally means “origin of the sun” (Land of the Rising Sun). The Japanese flag is also a white background and a red circle (sun).
Colors and culture are closely related. Not only culturally, but also historically and linguistically. That’s why I am interested in different cultures and languages.
Photos by Pixabay & LILI
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