Vermilion shrine and black ink
Nara
Japan's eighth-century capital, with a vermilion shrine in the forest and a long tradition of black ink.
Why Nara is shrine vermilion
Nara was the capital of Japan for most of the 8th century. Kasuga Taisha, founded in that period, stands at the edge of an old forest. Its halls and corridors are painted vermilion with white walls, and hung with hundreds of bronze lanterns that have turned green with age. Tame deer, treated as messengers of the gods, wander between the trees. Nearby, the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji is dark weathered timber. Nara also has a quieter colour. The city has made sumi, the solid black ink used for calligraphy and painting, for many centuries, and remains the main centre of the craft in Japan. The ink is made from soot and animal glue, pressed into sticks.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Nara
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Nara (city)" on Wikipedia. If you know Nara and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
🇯🇵 City of vermilion gatesKyotoThousands of vermilion torii gates climb the hill behind Fushimi Inari shrine in Japan's old capital.
🇮🇳 The open-air gallery of RajasthanShekhawatiMerchant mansions in the towns of north Rajasthan are covered inside and out with painted murals.
🇮🇳 Land of mirror work and white desertKutchEmbroidery, tie-dye and block print in deep red and indigo, set against the white salt of the Rann.
🇮🇳 The silk cityKanchipuramA temple town in Tamil Nadu whose heavy silk saris pair strong body colours with contrasting gold borders.
🇮🇳 Red earth and a golden sphereAurovilleAn experimental township on red earth near Pondicherry, centred on the golden globe of the Matrimandir.
🇮🇳 Akbar's red sandstone cityFatehpur SikriA Mughal capital built in one red stone in the 1570s and left by the court only a few years later.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Shekhawati In: Digrajsingh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kutch In: Zeel Satyendra Modi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kanchipuram In: Ssriram mt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Auroville In: Kaspar Konrad, Public domain, source
- Fatehpur Sikri In: HibaSiddiqui, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kyoto Jp: Saigen Jiro, CC0, source