Colours in Egypt and Japan

The ancient Egyptians called the desert deshret, the red land. Red was the colour of the god Set, of chaos and of danger, and scribes wrote unlucky words in red ink.

The flag is red, white and black. Red recalls the struggle before the 1952 revolution, white the revolution itself, which was nearly bloodless, and black the end of oppression.

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.

In ancient Egypt green meant new growth and life after death. Osiris, god of the dead and of rebirth, was painted with green skin.

Ancient craftsmen made Egyptian blue, one of the first synthetic pigments, and blue-glazed faience for amulets. Blue stood for the sky and the Nile.

Many households hang a blue glass bead with an eye on it by the door or in the car to keep off the evil eye, known as hasad. Blue eye beads were already made in ancient Egypt.

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 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.

The old name of the country, Kemet, means the black land, after the dark silt left by the Nile flood. To the ancient Egyptians black was the colour of fertile soil and new life.

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 ancient Egyptians held that the flesh of the gods was gold, which never tarnishes. Royal coffins and masks, like Tutankhamun's, were made of it.