Colours in Ghana and Japan

At Akan funerals the close family wear red or red and black. Red shows the sharpest grief, and it is often worn when the death was sudden or the person young.

The flag is red, gold and green with a black star. The red is for the blood of those who died in the struggle for independence, won in 1957.

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.

The green band of the flag stands for the forests and farmland. In kente cloth, green threads mean planting, harvest and growth.

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.

Kuntunkuni is a dark brown mourning cloth of the Asante, dyed with tree bark. Adinkra cloth, stamped with symbols, was first made on such dark grounds for funerals.

White is worn for a baby's naming day, for thanksgiving after an illness and at the funeral of someone who died very old, when the family gives thanks for a long life.

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 black star at the centre of the flag is the lodestar of African freedom. It gives the national football team its name, the Black Stars.

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.

Gold is the colour of Asante kingship. The Golden Stool holds the soul of the nation, and in kente cloth gold threads stand for royalty and wealth.