A Dictionary of Color Combinations

This dictionary of colour combinations is a collection of 348 colour coordinations made from 159 colours. The publication covers a wide span of shades and hues based on the author Wada Sanzō’s original six-volume work, which Haishoku Sōkan published from 1933 to 1934.

Haishoku Sōkan was created in the early Shōwa era (1926-1989), a period of pre-war and post-war turbulence where cultural shifts were occurring, often driven by influences outside of Japan. Sanzō was a Japanese artist, costume and kimono designer, teacher, and researcher of colour theory, who worked with Japanese traditions of colour alongside European influences of colour combinations. Through this, he diversified the use of colour by creating a sampler of combined colours, something that was not common at the time. Haishoku Sōkan was a pioneering piece of work and precursor for samplers that exist today.

This book introduces an array of two, three and four colour combinations, serving as an extensive resource for designers and artists.