Colours in United Kingdom and Japan

Each November people pin on a red paper poppy to remember those killed in war. The flower grew on the battlefields of Flanders in the First World War.

Red is the colour of the Labour Party, whose symbol is a red rose, and blue the colour of the Conservatives. Election maps are drawn in the two.

Post boxes, telephone kiosks and London buses share a bright red. Post boxes were painted green at first and changed to red from 1874 so that they were easier to find.

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.

British racing green is the dark green of British motor racing cars. It dates from the early 1900s, when each country's cars raced in a national colour.

At Oxford and Cambridge a blue is the award given to those who represent the university in sport. Oxford's is dark blue and Cambridge's light blue, as worn in the Boat Race.

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.

Suffragettes campaigning for women's votes wore purple, white and green: purple for dignity, white for purity and green for hope.

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.

Queen Victoria married in white silk and lace in 1840. Prints of the dress spread widely, and white became the usual colour for brides across the West.

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.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life. Victorian widows were expected to wear full black for at least a year.

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.