Colours in Cuba and Japan

The 26th of July Movement, which Fidel Castro led to power in 1959, flew a red and black flag. It still appears beside the national flag on public holidays.

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.

Yellow is the colour of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, patron of Cuba, and of Ochun, the Santeria spirit of rivers and love. Pilgrims bring her sunflowers.

The flag has three blue stripes for the three old departments of the island, two white ones for the purity of the cause, and a red triangle with a white star.

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.

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.

A person newly initiated into Santeria, called an iyawo, dresses entirely in white for a year and keeps the head covered.

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.