26/09/2025
PAN HIGHLIGHT | MAD ABOUT COLOUR – WADA’S COLOUR COLLECTION LEGACY
In August the Dutch Newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ dedicated a large article on the best-seller pocket book A Dictionary of Colour Combinations (Haishoku jiten, published by Seigensha in 2010). (Read here: https://archive.is/WJrun). Creatives worldwide – from artists to interior designers – cherish the small and modest looking book, with an an estimated worldwide sale of 25.000 copies every few months! Across 354 pages, 348 colour combinations, consisting out of 159 colours are presented in a straightforward manner: adjacent colour fields form harmonious palettes, often accompanied by poetic names. This popular edition however is based on artist Wada Sanzō (1883-1967)’s 1933-34 six-volume ‘Complete Collection of Colour Schemes’ (Haishoku sōkan), a revolutionary milestone in colour research! We are proud to present the original publication as one of our PAN Amsterdam highlights.
How did this extensive colour collection came into being? In 1904 Wada graduates from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from the Western-style painting division. His talent and skill bring him the top prize at the prestigious state-sponsored Bunten exhibition in 1907, after which a scholarship enables him to study western art in Europe (mainly France) and travel to India, Burma and Java. He returns to Japan in 1915 and already at this time is obsessed with the world of colour. Returning to Japan in 1915, he becomes increasingly fascinated by colour, inspired by a conversation with an Indian trader about the need for a standardized colour language to aid international trade.
In 1927, Wada founds the Japan Standard Color Association, later the Japan Color Research Institute, focusing on collecting and defining colours, organizing them by hue, brightness, and saturation. Here colour harmony is studied across art, design and everyday life. This research leads Wada to publish the influential ‘Complete Collection of Colour Schemes’ in 1933-34. Already in this original edition, colour names are given in Japanese and English, likely due to Wada’s fascination with Western art. The bound books, woodblock printed but with hand-painted, matte colour swatches, are presented in various combinations and form the origin story of what would become A Dictionary of Colour Combinations.
Wada Sanzō was a versatile artist, active across many artistic fields. His colour collection legacy reaches worldwide. In the world of woodblock printing he is known for his series
‘Japanese Vocations of the Shōwa era in pictures’, a time capsule of Shōwa Japan (1926-1989) showing daily life, customs and occasionally nationalistic imagery.
