Japanese Blue and Green #3 'Ao' in the Kojiki (Part 2)

Japanese Blue and Green #3

In the previous post, I introduced two types of 'Ao' that appear in mythology. Let me continue exploring mythological 'Ao' in this post as well.

◆青山・青垣・青柴垣

青山(Aoyama)=Blue Mountain

In the previous article, I discussed the exchange of songs between Okuninushi-no-mikoto and Suseribime, but the word "Aoyama" appears twice during the courtship of Nunakawahime, which was the starting point of that story:
"In the Aoyama, the night bird cries" / "When the sun sets behind the Aoyama"

(The original text uses the characters "阿遠夜麻邇 奴延波那伎奴／阿遠夜麻邇 比賀迦久良婆". Similarly, the "aokimikeshi" from the previous article was written as "阿遠岐美祁斯". These songs use ateji (phonetic kanji), and I explain the writing system of the Kojiki in more detail on another page called "In Songs, Sound is More Important Than Appearance." Please take a look at that as well.)

Furthermore, there is an expression "crying until the Aoyama withers," which describes how Susanoo continued to cry even after reaching the age when he grew a beard in his youth.

While one might be tempted to interpret all these instances of 'Ao' as meaning green, I sense that color isn't really the point here. I believe this "Ao" is like the word green in the phrase "this area has a lot of green" - rather than referring to the color green specifically, it seems to be a general term for vegetation.

Since "Aoyama" would refer to mountains full of greenery like in the image above, I think it was used to vaguely indicate the trees in such scenes.

The school song at my junior high school begins with "the green gleams in the trees," which apparently described the small forest within the school grounds. This "green" refers to "many leaves," and while I can't say there's absolutely no color element to it, the color aspect seems minimal.

Moreover, in Susanoo's story, the use of "Aoyama" might be a metaphor meaning "although the mountain appears young (immature), it withers." This would be similar to how 'Ao' is used in terms like "Aonisai" (greenhorn) or "Aokusai" (inexperienced). It's quite possible that this was meant to subtly hint at Susanoo's immaturity.

If this kind of usage of 'Ao' appears as early as in mythology, that makes things quite complicated.

青垣(Aokaki)=Blue Fences

When Okuninushi-no-mikoto was troubled with his nation-building, Omonushi-no-Okami appeared. He said, "Dedicate me on top of the eastern mountain in Yamato's Aokaki," expressing his wish to be dedicated on Mount Miwa, and eventually the nation-building was successfully completed. This might have been his way of offering assistance.

Yamato was surrounded by mountains like a living fence, and these mountains are still called Aokaki today. Due to this geographical feature, Nara gets quite hot in summer.



Looking at the topographical map above, one can imagine that this refers to "the mountains in the eastern area of Yamato's Aokaki." Or it might mean "the mountain that lies east of Yamato's Aokaki." In that case, it would refer to the seemingly higher mountains on the western side. Either way, since they could specify the location by calling it "Aokaki," this had already become a proper noun.

Mount Miwa

( Photo provided by Nara Visitors Bureau )

Incidentally, the deity enshrined at Omiwa Jinja, which lies at the foot of Mount Miwa, is of course Omonushi-no-Okami. The mountain itself serves as the object of worship, and the shrine preserves the primitive style of deity worship where, instead of having Honden (main sanctuary), worshippers directly pay their respects to Mount Miwa from behind the Haiden (worship hall).



青柴垣(Aofushigaki)

In the story of the transfer of the land, when Takemikazuchi demanded Okuninushi-no-mikoto to surrender the land, Okuninushi deferred the decision to his son, Kotoshironushi. Kotoshironushi immediately replied "Let us surrender it," and then transformed his boat into what was called "Aohushigaki" and hid himself. Perhaps he couldn't bear the humiliation.

While "Aohushigaki" literally means "a fresh green brushwood fence," it still appears in Shinto rituals today.

The image below shows the Aohushigaki ritual (Aohushigaki-shinji) performed annually on April 7th at Miho Jinja in Mihonoseki. For more details, please visit http://mihojinja.or.jp/

(Courtesy of Matsue Travel Association)

The entire square enclosure on the boat is called "Aohushigaki," and sakaki branches are erected at its four corners. It is said that originally the entire enclosure was made of sakaki. 

If that's the case, while this 'Ao' could refer to "the color of sakaki leaves," at this point it seems to carry more the meaning of "having leaves" rather than being a color term.

◆蒲黄(Hoou)=Cattail Pollen

Actually, the character for yellow (黄='Ki') also appears in the first volume of the Kojiki. To be more precise, I should perhaps say "something written with the character 黄."

Okuninushi helps the "White Rabbit of Inaba", but the rabbit applies cattail pollen to its skin to treat it. This is cattail pollen, and the actual cattail is completely yellow.

It's generally accepted that "only 'Aka'(red), 'Kuro'(black), 'Shiro'(white), and 'Ao' appear in the Kojiki," but why isn't 'Ki'(yellow) in hoou(蒲黄) counted? Looking at the actual substance, it seems natural to describe it as "the yellow substance that comes from cattails."

●Could it be because they hadn't learned the meaning of the kanji?
It seems possible that this pollen was called "kamano hana" (cattail flower). If they had only later learned the written form "蒲黄" and its reading "hoou" from immigrants from the continent, without understanding its meaning, then indeed there would have been no awareness of color in the term.

●Is it because it wasn't used as a modifier?
If it had been written as something like "yellow powder" (黄粉), it might have been recognized as a color term. In that case, it should have had a Japanese reading, but terms like 'Kishi' or 'Kiki' (comparable to 'Akashi' or 'Akaki') probably never existed. This means there should have been something called 'Ki,' but apart from 'ki' (木, tree), there was nothing that later became associated with 'Ki' (黄, yellow).

In other words, the character '黄' (yellow) was not assigned to a pre-existing color concept, but was likely a true loanword. So indeed, the 'Ki' in "蒲黄" is not a color term.


The Kojiki was compiled in 712 CE. It doesn't directly reflect the color perception of the era it describes, but rather represents "inherited color perceptions" from sometime before 712.

Since the Kojiki is a record of words spoken by Hieda no Are and written down by Ō no Yasumaro, there's no doubt that Hieda no Are's own color perception influenced it.

However, despite 'yellow' being common by this time, it only appears twice in the Kojiki: in "Land of Yomi" and in "hoou" (蒲黄). Pure yellow never appears.

Perhaps they consciously avoided using words that "would have been common at the time but shouldn't have existed in the past" to maintain authenticity.

If so, they should have absolutely wanted to avoid using the character '黄', but maybe by the Nara period, hoou (蒲黄) had become such a well-known term that it couldn't be written any other way.

◆Summary

It seems that none of the instances of 'Ao' and 'Ki' we looked at today can be called true color terms.

The 'Ao' in "Aoyama" vaguely refers to vegetation, in "Aokaki" it refers to specific mountains, and in "Aohushigaki" it refers to leaves - in all cases, it appears the color consciousness had already faded.

Furthermore, while the first 'Ao' we saw described the color/state of the sky, I sensed the possibility that from ancient times, there had been an evolution unrelated to color perception:
"blue~green color" → "green color of plants"
→ "general term for plants" → "fresh state of plants"
→ "young and immature" → "not fully grown"
~ terms like 'Aonisai' (greenhorn) and 'Aokusai' (inexperienced).

However, it's somewhat disappointing that we don't see the influence of 'hazy' in mythological 'Ao'. There were no appearances of grayish colors. If there had been, things would have been even more complex.


In the next article, I will continue examining color terms that appear in the Kojiki. When we reach the period where Kojiki's descriptions can be considered in terms of Western calendar years, things become much more vivid and real. Please look forward to it.