Colours in Portugal and Japan

The 1974 coup that ended the dictatorship is called the Carnation Revolution. People in Lisbon put red carnations in soldiers' rifle barrels, and the flower is worn every 25 April.

The red of the flag, adopted after the monarchy fell in 1910, stands for the blood of those who died for the nation.

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 of the flag stands for hope. Green and red were the colours of the republican movement and replaced the blue and white of the monarchy.

Blue and white painted tiles, azulejos, cover churches, stations and house fronts. The fashion for blue on white took hold in the late 1600s under the influence of Chinese porcelain and Dutch Delft.

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.

In fishing towns such as Nazare and in country villages, widows traditionally dressed in black for the rest of their lives. Fado singers perform in a black shawl.

University students wear the traje academico, a black suit and long black cape. At Coimbra they tear the cape's hem for friends and burn ribbons in their faculty's colour at graduation.

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.

Talha dourada is carved wood covered in gold leaf. It lines the altars of baroque churches in Porto and Lisbon, and much of the gold came from Brazil in the 1700s.