Obangsaek
The five traditional Korean colours, blue, red, yellow, white and black, tied to the five directions.
Also: hanbok colours, five Korean colours, saekdong
Obangsaek means five-direction colours. Blue stands for the east, red for the south, yellow for the centre, white for the west and black for the north, following the five-elements thinking shared with China. The set appears throughout Korean tradition: in the rainbow-striped sleeves called saekdong on children's and festive hanbok, in the painted woodwork of palaces and temples, in the toppings of some dishes and in shamanic ritual. In daily life most people of the Joseon period wore undyed white, and Koreans were long known as the white-clad people.