Sanzo Wada – Japanese Color Dictionary
What does a lost, faded color Japanese movie and a collection of thousands of scraps of colors swatches have in common? Sanzo Wada – an artist and color scientist. In fact, he was much more. He was a painter, printmaker, custume designer, and educator. Much has been written about how Japanese art influenced Western artists – Vincent van Gogh and James Abbott McNeil Whistler – come time mind for example. Wada, flipped the script as it were, and brought Western influences and techniques into play with Japanese subjects.
Bungu’s wonderful video, The man behind the viral color dictionary, is an excellent introduction to who Sanzo Wada was and why he matters today. Rather than focusing on color theory in the scientific sense, Wada presented harmonious palettes drawn from Japanese aesthetics and practical design experience. Between 1933 and 1934, Wada published six volumes documenting hundreds of carefully curated color combinations. Rather than focusing on color theory in the scientific sense, he presented harmonious palettes drawn from Japanese aesthetics and practical design experience. In 2011 these volumes were abridged to create the internet-famous book A Dictionary of Color Combinations. It’s a gorgeous reference for painters, illustrators, graphic designers, interior designers, and fashion designers. The color combinations continue to amaze and delight and feel so contemporary despite being nearly 90 years old.
Of course, my bent is towards fine art painting. So, why does Wada’s work matter to painters? He may have been a chemist, but there is nothing clinical about his approach to color. As a practicing artist, it’s no surprise that his color combinations emphasized subtle temperature shifts, muted but luminous harmonies, unexpected complementary relationships, and restrained use of saturated accents. Many of his combinations resemble the quiet, atmospheric color harmonies found in Japanese textiles, ceramics, and traditional painting while remaining completely usable in contemporary work. For painters influenced by artists such as Edgar Payne, Wada's color studies can be particularly valuable—not because they prescribe formulas, but because they train the eye to recognize harmonious relationships that feel natural rather than mechanical.
A Dictionary of Color Combinations, Sanzo Wada
A Dictionary of Color Combinations vol. 2, Sanzo Wada
