About this prototype
Sources & method
Colors and combinations are by Sanzo Wada (和田三造, 1883–1967), from Haishoku Sōkan (配色総鑑, 1933–34) and Haishoku Sōkan B-hen (1934–35). Seigensha republished them as A Dictionary of Color Combinations (2010) and A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2 (2020). If they are useful to you, buy the books.
Known source gaps
The records and research below have limits that remain unresolved. Source access was last reviewed on ; this disclosure was updated on . An unavailable source may become accessible later.
Color records and editions
- Modern edition verification. None of the 330 complete English/Japanese/CMYK mappings is certified against the modern books. Publisher previews and historical scans provide partial evidence. All 19 missing modern Japanese labels remain missing, including records with historical name candidates.
- Conflicting values. Eight color records disagree between the imported sources: Red (a31), Pinkish Cinnamon (a45), Cinnamon Buff (a46), Citrine (a72), Olive (a77), Rainette Green (a97), Diamine Green (a106), Dull Violet Black (a131). A separate Blue preview also differs from the imported value. Both source arrays are retained in the ledger; no disputed value is corrected by guesswork.
- Palette and edition identity. Complete original-to-modern crosswalks for the 72 month palettes and 161 design records, historical name differences, and the publisher’s 161/165 design and 172/171 chip counts remain unresolved. Partial plate comparisons do not certify all memberships, order or proportions.
- Estimated screen colors. The original fitting model and measured validation for 19 retained estimates are unavailable. Reproducing 159 digital ICC outputs does not validate those estimates or printed-swatch accuracy.
- Access and reuse. Completing this work needs the exact modern editions (ISBN 9784861522475 and 9784861527722), their printing and table-page references, and some restricted original design material. Applicable reuse permission for the Japanese-name port and publisher material has not been established.
Detailed color-source review and access gaps · Complete record ledger. Identified library holdings provide possible access routes; current availability and access rights still need checking.
Message Lab research
Bibliographic checks, abstract review and selected manuscript sections are recorded separately on the research cards. The remaining document checks are:
- Edwards (2023): obtain the full methods and results before interpreting the priming test, experimental allocation, measures or color calibration.
- Labrecque and Milne (2012): compare the available author-profile preview with an authoritative final paper, including its tables and figures.
- Gorn (1997) and Rizomyliotis (2018): compare the reviewed working or accepted manuscripts with the final published versions. Matching abstracts or accepted copies do not establish final-version equivalence.
- Unused sources and numbers: the actual Elliot/Maier 2012 chapter remains unreviewed and unused. The original study behind the Singh-related percentage claims has not been authenticated; those numbers remain omitted.
These checks need authorized final papers or chapter access through a publisher, library or document-delivery service. The reviewed material establishes no measured Wada-palette or short-form-video retention effect; application advice remains a testable editorial hypothesis.
Detailed paper review and exact missing documents · Source and version ledger. The research cards and exports retain their individual review limits.
Screen color is an approximation
The books specify colors as CMYK printing values. Hex values here are imported CMYK→sRGB port outputs or retained estimates. RGB and OKLCH are computed from those hex values. A separate pinned-profile check reproduced all 159 classic RGB/hex outputs exactly; this does not certify printed-swatch accuracy or the 19 legacy estimates. None is an accurate reproduction of the original printed swatches, which also vary with paper, ink, age and light.
Data
| What | Source | License |
|---|---|---|
| 348 classic combinations, 159 colors: names, CMYK, imported sRGB hex (U.S. Web Coated SWOP v2 → sRGB, relative colorimetric + BPC; pinned-profile check reproduced all 159 RGB/hex outputs) | mattdesl/dictionary-of-colour-combinations (from dblodorn/sanzo-wada) | MIT © 2020 Matt DesLauriers |
| 72 B-hen seasonal combinations (6 per month) and 161 Vol. 2 design combinations, 171 colors: names, CMYK | wassilyevich/sanzo-color | MIT © 2025 Daan Van Cauteren |
| Japanese color names (159 of 159 classic colors, reused for 152 matching Vol. 2 colors) | marcebollin/sanzo-wada-colors by Marcelo Bollin | No declared license. Credit does not establish reuse permission; underlying edition rights are not certified by port licenses. |
The original B-series plate 35 prints Pomegranate Purple. The a26 port spelling Pomegranite Purple and existing b29 spelling are preserved, with a sourced searchable alias. Original plate evidence; modern edition spelling/mapping remains unverified.
The data is bundled as one static JSON file (data/wada.json). Vol. 2 colors whose CMYK matches a Vol. 1 color reuse its converted hex and Japanese name. The other 19 Vol. 2 colors (Pale Purplish Vinaceous, Pale Cinnamon-Pink, Pale Ecru-Drab, Raw Sienna, Carmine Red, Hays Russet, Sea-foam Yellow, Citrine, Dull Citrine, Pale Turtle Green, Rainette Green, Grape Green, Diamine Green, Pale Kings Blue, Pale Methy Blue, Dull Violet Black, Violet Ultramarine, Dark Perilla Purple, Dull Purplish Black) have no Vol. 1 match. Their legacy estimated hex values are preserved as pinned inputs, and they have no Japanese name here. The original cubic CMYK→Lab generator, coefficients and leave-one-out validation are unavailable. The previously reported mean ΔE76 ≈ 0.7 is withdrawn as unverified; this build makes no model-accuracy claim.
The seasonal port maps each color to the combinations it appears in. It doesn't record the order or proportion of colors within a palette, and its month grouping (1–6 January … 67–72 December) is taken as given. Compositions on this site are illustrative: area goes to the least chromatic color and the smallest point to the most chromatic.
Provenance and unresolved evidence
All 330 color records and 581 combinations have a machine-readable ledger in the dataset. Complete collation of the 159 Vol. 1 mappings and 152 reused names remains unresolved; selected publisher previews now supply partial label/table and palette crosswalk evidence; 19 Japanese labels are missing. Dictionary headword attestation, historical plate labels, EN/JA pairing, source swatches and conversion validation are separate fields. No claim that all Japanese names are certified is made.
Historical spellings are preserved. a93/b99: 鶸萌木 versus original B34 鶸萌黄 / Light Green remains an edition difference to investigate. Original B43 separately prints Night Green; this does not establish equivalence with Light Green or certify the modern row. 千斎茶 is attested beside Deep Slate Olive on original plate 109; modern CMYK remains unresolved and no spelling correction is applied. Selected original labels are attested with plate URLs, but those observations do not certify modern CMYK or screen values.
Every one of the 72 month palettes and 161 design records has a source crosswalk/status, including null unresolved modern page/plate fields. The publisher’s Vol. 2 overview says 161 designs, a bullet says 165, and it advertises 172 chips; the port supplies 171 colors. The design and chip count differences have not been reconciled. No missing records are invented. Site numbers are port identifiers, not authenticated original plate numbers.
Regenerate offline with npm run colors:generate; verify pinned input hashes and output with npm run colors:check. The tracked generator rebuilds memberships from upstream rows, validates IDs and all 152 reuse links, and retains 19 explicit estimates. This reproduces the dataset assembly. The separate scripts/colors/validate-conversion.py check reproduces all 159 classic RGB/hex outputs from pinned ICC profiles; it does not recover the 19-color legacy fit or measure printed swatches.
Traditional month labels refer to the old calendar and can differ from present seasonal timing by one or two months; modern month labels here are navigation. Seasons follow Japan’s weather convention, not a universal calendar. NDL explanation · Season convention.
Color math
OKLCH is computed in the browser from each hex value (sRGB → linear → OKLab using Björn Ottosson's matrices → polar), with no libraries. Contrast ratios follow WCAG 2.x relative luminance.
Motion & Message lab
The Motion playbook is by Audy, for TFIS. Message-lab research cards distinguish validated bibliographies from abstract and full-text review. The reviewed material establishes no measured Wada-palette/video outcome. Palette and motion advice is a testable editorial hypothesis; see each card’s review status and limitations. The lab ships an A/B checklist instead of a retention number.
Keyboard
R random combination · / search · ← → previous/next combination or month · F save · C compare · Esc back
A prototype by The Future Is Solo. Not affiliated with Seigensha or the Wada estate.