Colours in Argentina and Japan

Under Juan Manuel de Rosas in the 1830s and 1840s, everyone had to wear a scarlet ribbon to show loyalty to his Federalist party. His enemies, the Unitarians, were tied to sky blue.

The torii gates of Shinto shrines are often painted vermilion, a bright orange-red. The colour is held to keep evil away, and the long tunnels of gates at Fushimi Inari are the best known.

A green kerchief is the sign of the campaign for legal abortion. Huge crowds wore it in 2018, and the movement was called the green wave.

The flag is sky blue, white and sky blue, created by Manuel Belgrano in 1812. National teams are called the Albiceleste, the white and sky blue.

Boca Juniors play in blue and gold. The club's story is that in 1907 it took the colours of the flag of the next ship into port, which was Swedish.

Indigo dyeing, called aizome, clothed ordinary people in deep blue through the Edo period. The men's national football team plays in blue and is nicknamed Samurai Blue.

Purple dye from the murasaki plant was costly and hard to make. In the court rank system set up under Prince Shotoku, the highest officials wore purple caps.

The president's office in Buenos Aires is the Casa Rosada, the Pink House. A popular story says its paint once had ox blood mixed in, though this is not proven.

Pale pink is the colour of cherry blossom. In spring people picnic under the trees for hanami, flower viewing, and the short bloom is a common image for how brief life is.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo wore white headscarves as they marched to demand news of children who disappeared under the dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.

A bride at a Shinto wedding may wear the shiromuku, a kimono that is white from head to foot. White is also the colour of the paper streamers that mark sacred places.

Red and white together, called kohaku, mark happy occasions. Curtains at ceremonies are striped red and white, and the New Year's Eve song contest sets a Red team against a White team.

Mourners wear plain black, called mofuku, to funerals, and men add a black tie. Condolence money goes in an envelope tied with black and white cord.

The golden Sun of May at the centre of the flag recalls the May Revolution of 1810. Its face is linked with Inti, the Inca sun god.