November 28th Color Calendar Ink Color (Sumiiro)

November 28th Color Calendar

Ink color (Sumi-iro)

"There is depth in what is left unsaid."

The ink color is a grayish-black color that is close to black, which corresponds to the "burnt" color among the five ink colors.
The color is created from ink made by kneading soot from burning rapeseed oil or pine with glue, adding fragrance, and solidifying it.
Since ancient times, it has been used in the everyday clothing of monks and in calligraphy and paintings, and was also a color that represented misfortune, but in modern times it has become widely used in decoration and dyeing.

November 28th is when the bamboo forest quietly deepens in winter.
In the silence that seems to absorb even the sound of the wind, the ink color reflects the "beauty of the unspoken."
It is also a color that evokes the "white space" and "poetry of silence" that WABISUKE values.

Ink color in daily life

• The white space of a sumi-e (ink wash) painting • The black remaining on the handle of a well-used brush • The deep shadows cast on a bamboo forest in winter

The ink color is inconspicuous, silent, and simply there.
Yet it certainly exists, deeply and quietly.
Its appearance teaches us the beauty of the "sabi" of wabi-sabi.

References

• "Traditional Japanese Colors" by Shikosha • "Ink Color – The ABCs of Traditional Colors" https://irocore.com/sumi-iro
• "Five Colors of Ink and the Cultural History of Color" Color Culture Research Association