Japanese Blue and Green #18 _ Up to the Kamakura Period

Japanese Blue and Green #18

I have been exploring how "青 (Ao)" was perceived from ancient peoples through to the Heian nobility in this series, and now the puzzling uses of "青 (Ao)" in modern times are becoming much more understandable. Let me take a moment here to organize what we've covered about "青 (Ao)" and "緑 (Midori)" up to this point.


◆ 青 (Ao) in the Heian Period

"緑 (Midori)" appeared in the 7th century and came to be used frequently in the Heian period, but both blue and green were still fundamentally "青 (Ao)," and even low-saturation "grayish colors" remained "Ao."

"Ao" is an extremely difficult word/concept to understand. Let me organize the concept of "Ao" that had developed up to the Heian period and clarify how it differs from the present. As for "Midori," I have visualized "緑 (Midori)" in the Heian Period based on my hypotheses so far. Please be sure to check that out as well.

"Ao" in the Heian period was a word with the following meanings:

A. When used as a color name: muted green tones
B. When used as a tone descriptor: ambiguous states such as grayish colors
C. When used as a color group name: completely encompassing "blue to green" ranges

And the original meaning that connected to A:
D. Plants in general, the color of chlorophyll

Furthermore, developing from D:
E. Indicating a "young and immature state" such as unripe fruit

I don't think people were consciously aware of these distinctions, but as a result of this state continuing for a considerable period, we can still find remnants of it today.

Examples of A can be seen in "ao-ringo (green apple)" and "ao-mushi (green caterpillar)." The muted green meaning of "青(Ao)" hasn't survived much, but I think it lives on in the form of "蒼 (Ao)."

Additionally, as examples of B, various color names have been preserved. All the following color names containing '青(Ao)' first appeared in texts from the Heian period.

Examples of B also include "aosagi (gray heron)."



C would be "ao-shingou (green traffic light)," D would be "ao-yasai (green vegetables)," and E would be "ao-kusai (smelling green: immature)."

Incidentally, when traffic lights were first introduced in 1930, they were officially called "Midori-shingou (green signal)." However, after newspapers began using the term "Ao-shingou (blue signal)," this name became established in common usage, and in the Road Traffic Control Law enacted in 1947, it was officially written as "青色 (blue color)."

This serves as an example showing that the sense of C remained alive in the era when "Ao-shingou (blue signal)" became established. At that time, people probably felt it was completely natural for both blue and green to be "Ao."

However, nowadays when used as a color name, "Ao" means blue, not green. Whether this has been ingrained as learned knowledge or represents a change in color perception, I don't know, but at least no one would answer "Ao" when asked about the color of something green, and I suspect few young people today would think of "green as being in the Ao family."

In other words, at some point:

• A (color name) changed to mean blue
• B (tonal concept) disappeared, leaving only the words behind
• C (color group property) weakened
• D (plants/chlorophyll) - only the words remain

The weakening of C seems to have happened fairly recently. Only E (the usage meaning immature) has remained completely intact.

What on earth happened to the Japanese people? I think the focus has become clear. To clarify when and how this change occurred, it seems we have no choice but to continue examining the actual state of "青 (Ao)" chronologically from here on.

◆"Ao" in the Uji Shūi Monogatari

Next is the Kamakura period (1185-1333), but first I'd like to introduce a story called "The Tale of Ao-tsune (Ao + 'always/constant')" from the "Uji Shūi Monogatari" (a collection of Japanese tales written around the beginning of the 13th century). Known as the "all-blue episode," this is a Heian period anecdote that is extremely helpful in exploring how "Ao" was perceived at that time.

As with the Kojiki and other texts, it's difficult to determine whether the color perception reflects the Kamakura period when it was written or the Heian period when the events took place, but for now I think it's reasonable to consider it as representing the Kamakura period.

The following is a summary of this episode.

This episode features many "Ao things." First, the complexion is described as "pale (Ao-white) as if painted with flowers." This "Ao-jiroi (pale)" which we still use today, wasn't found in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, but apparently was commonly used by this time.

This "Ao" should be an example of B (tonal descriptor), but it's quite strange to connect it with the actual color of flowers and say "complexion so poor as if painted with flowers." However, this might have been a stylish expression at the time.

The Ao clothing was probably green-toned. Since this is a Heian period episode, there's no problem understanding "Ao" in relation to court dress as green.

I'm not sure about the Ao trays, but many modern translations interpret the Ao dishes and Ao-glazed bottles as 青磁 (seiji: celadon). The 青磁 (seiji: celadon) imported from the continent at that time is thought to have looked like the items shown on the right side of the table below.

青磁 (seiji) (Photo: 中川政七商店)	Yuezhou kiln celadon, 11th century (Photo: 陶磁オンライン美術館)

However, since this story is from the 10th century, these were likely 緑釉陶器 (ryokuyū-tōki: green-glazed pottery). Before celadon technology was available, pottery called 青瓷 (aoji/aoshi) was made in imitation of Chinese celadon, and this was probably the typical "Ao tableware" of the time.

青瓷 (aoji) (Photo: 鍋島 虎仙窯)	Heian Period Ryokuyū-tōki Dish (Photo: Okayama City website)

青磁 (seiji) is porcelain, while 青瓷 (aoji) is pottery. Porcelain and pottery differ in firing temperature and raw materials, and the blue-green of celadon comes from iron while that of aoji comes from copper, so their character is quite different. However, in either case, they would have looked like the image on the right, so it must have been a muted green.

"Kokuwa" refers to the fruit of sarunashi (literally "monkey pear"), also known in English as baby kiwi or hardy kiwi.

Kokuwa (baby kiwi)

The mountain doves likely refer to either "Kijibato (Oriental turtle doves)" or "Ao-bato (Japanese green pigeons)," and the color "Yamabato-iro (mountain dove color)" is said to be the same as 麴塵 (Kikujin)/ 青白橡 (Ao-shiro-tsurubami), the forbidden color I introduced in the previous article.

Oriental turtle dove	Japanese green pigeons

I've arranged the colors I researched. You can clearly see how the colors derive from the plumage of the doves.

Indeed, it seems there was no blue in the "all-Ao theme" of this story.

Apparently, the bullying of "Ao-tsune" didn't stop even after this. Perhaps because even the Emperor himself had laughed? It's written that after this, no one came forward to admonish them either.

◆"Ao" and "Midori" in the Azuma Kagami

When we think of the Kamakura period, the Azuma Kagami comes to mind. The Azuma Kagami is a historical chronicle compiled as the official record of the Kamakura shogunate, covering nearly 90 years starting from Minamoto no Yoritomo's uprising. Though it was compiled from the late Kamakura period through the Nanboku-chō period (late 13th to 14th century), we can find several references to "Ao" and "Midori" in it.

** 青女(ao-me) **
This is a term referring to young women that appears multiple times. I believe the reading is "aome." It seems to be particularly used when referring to those serving people of high status. This is an example of usage E, representing immaturity.


** 青黒(ao-guro) **  
"Ao-guro" refers to horse coat colors, specifically "aoge" or "aokage." I've already introduced horse coat colors here, but since these refer to completely black coats, we can't analyze them for color purposes.


 (Photo: SHADAI STALLION STATION)

It seems there was a concept of "Ao horses" in the Nara or Heian periods, and we can confirm that this complex usage of "Ao" continued even as time progressed.


** 青巌(Seigan) **
This refers to rocky mountains covered with vegetation. Since it's nearly synonymous with "ao-yama" (green/blue mountain), this "Ao" represents either A (color name: green) or D (plants).

** "Ao" in 虫襖 (mushi-ao) **
Since the Azuma Kagami contains numerous records of court dress, many color combinations appear, but here I'll introduce "mushi-ao." It's written like this:
"Guard Captain Kanehira: everyday clothes [mushi-ao upper and lower garments, crimson robe] cap"

This describes: "Guard Captain Kanehira is wearing everyday clothes [mushi-ao upper and lower garments with blue-black outer and futaai inner, with a crimson robe] and a cap."

The "ao" in "mushi-ao" doesn't mean blue/green but is a phonetic change from the on-yomi reading "ō" of the character '襖.' With an outer layer of blue-black and inner of "二藍 (Futaai: purple-toned)" or "薄色 (Usuiro: light purple)," this color scheme represents the jewel beetle.

"Futaai" is a color created from two types of dyes with "ai" in their names: Tade-ai (indigo) and Kure-ai (safflower red), with no specific ratio prescribed. I imagine it has a different character from purple dyed with murasaki root, but it represents a broad range of purples. Usu-iro is a pale purple made by diluting the concentration of murasaki root dye. It's considered the same color as Asa-murasaki (light purple). The amount of dye is said to be about 1/6 that of fukamurasaki (deep purple).

In all cases, I think the important thing was not to make it a pure purple. Due to issues of status and rank, deep purple couldn't be used casually. We could also think of it as a clever way to use purple without using the character "紫." This "Ao" shouldn't have a broad range, so I think it's A (color name: green-toned), and when I tried making it a color like "Tametoki's Midori," it matched quite well. Due to technical limitations as well, colors with this kind of tone were probably common in this period.


** About "Midori" **
Even in the Azuma Kagami, appearances of "緑 (Midori)" were limited, but they straightforwardly referred to green colors, as in "treetop midori" (leaves at the tips of branches) and "green water flows turbid." "Treetop midori" can be inferred to mean new buds, which is the same usage as in the Heian period. "Green water flows turbid" appeared in a passage stating "Yesterday's rain increased the water volume, and the green water became turbid with white waves." This is thought to be a description of the Uji River near Byōdō-in Temple.

Uji River (Asagiri Bridge)

This river is a fairly deep green. If they called this "Midori," it feels like the perception was getting quite close to the modern one. Rather, it's strange that it wasn't called "Ao."

Additionally, the Azuma Kagami contains a record of a supernova explosion in the first year of Yōwa (1181) described as "the color of the stationary star was blue-red." While there are no particular hints about hue, there have been recent advances in research on this phenomenon, which I've introduced here. Please be sure to take a look.

Summery

Indeed, the Kamakura period perception also seems to have been "Ao = green tones + grayish colors" without any issues. For usage A (color name), the basics would have been deep green, blue-green like celadon, or grayish green like kikujin. With the existence of "ai (indigo)" and "hanada," I think blue colors were rarely called "Ao" during this period.

The muted, dark green like the plumage of the Japanese green pigeon, or the dull green of old celadon and green-glazed pottery, may have been at the very center of what "Ao" meant.

Furthermore, we can see that the humor of the "all-Ao theme" worked because everything from green to blue-green and grayish colors, including vivid greens, were all recognized as "Ao." This episode could only have emerged because all three aspects were fully maintained: A (color name: green), B (tonal descriptor: grayish colors), and C (color group name: the entire blue-green range).

Also, in the usage examples of "Midori," we saw the possibility that it was approaching the modern perception. While I can't provide a proper explanation, although "Ao" was still being used as C (color group name), perhaps "Midori" and "Ao" were being differentiated in this way.

"Ao" seems to have generally represented dull colors. Perhaps the influence of B (tonal descriptor) was indeed strong.


Next time, I'll be tracing "Ao" from the Muromachi period onward. There should be more dramatic changes, but when will they appear?