J Culture: Mizuiro
- 124
- 19
- 4
What color is water? Does water have a color? I will tell you about the color of water today.
My daughter bought a new video game. It wasn’t actually new because she bought it from a second-hand shop. The title is “Pokemon Black and White.” This game is an RPG and it has two different versions: Black and White. She bought a “White” version. At first, she wanted to buy a “Black” one, but there was no “Black” version at the shop. She said, “I don’t care about Black nor White.”
The stage on the “Black” version is urban, but the one on the “White” is rural.
She started the game after she came home. She could choose a character among three, with which the hero in the game traveled. She picked up Mijumaru, which looks like a sea otter. She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, what can I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
Well, mizuiro in Japanese is compound with “mizu” and “iro.” Mizu means water and iro means color, so mizuiro means the color of the water literally.
You may wonder there is a color of the water. Water has no color and no smell. However, in Japan, water has a collor in the language. It’s mizuiro.
She believed I could speak English and she had no idea I didn’t know the English word for “mizuiro.” Neither did I.
To tell you the truth, I didn’t know the name of the color for mizuiro.
I think the names of the color are very easy words. Red, blue, green, black, white, purple, pink, orange, yellow, grey, brown and anything! However, I didn’t know the English word for mizuiro. I was so surprised at the fact. At the same time, this was one of the reason why my English weren’t improved any more.
When I learn English words, I tend to remember more difficult words like disciple, pauperism and fallacious. It’s a kind of ridiculous.
I looked it up in my dictionary and found the word “aqua.”
The first picture shows a string colored “mizuiro.” Japanese people call this color mizuiro, the color of the water.
Do you call it aqua? Do you have another color name? Light blue?
See the last picture. It’s Mijumaru, which my daughter drew for this journal.
My daughter bought a new video game. It wasn’t actually new because she bought it from a second-hand shop. The title is “Pokemon Black and White.” This game is an RPG and it has two different versions: Black and White. She bought a “White” version. At first, she wanted to buy a “Black” one, but there was no “Black” version at the shop. She said, “I don’t care about Black nor White.”
The stage on the “Black” version is urban, but the one on the “White” is rural.
She started the game after she came home. She could choose a character among three, with which the hero in the game traveled. She picked up Mijumaru, which looks like a sea otter. She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, what can I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
Well, mizuiro in Japanese is compound with “mizu” and “iro.” Mizu means water and iro means color, so mizuiro means the color of the water literally.
You may wonder there is a color of the water. Water has no color and no smell. However, in Japan, water has a collor in the language. It’s mizuiro.
She believed I could speak English and she had no idea I didn’t know the English word for “mizuiro.” Neither did I.
To tell you the truth, I didn’t know the name of the color for mizuiro.
I think the names of the color are very easy words. Red, blue, green, black, white, purple, pink, orange, yellow, grey, brown and anything! However, I didn’t know the English word for mizuiro. I was so surprised at the fact. At the same time, this was one of the reason why my English weren’t improved any more.
When I learn English words, I tend to remember more difficult words like disciple, pauperism and fallacious. It’s a kind of ridiculous.
I looked it up in my dictionary and found the word “aqua.”
The first picture shows a string colored “mizuiro.” Japanese people call this color mizuiro, the color of the water.
Do you call it aqua? Do you have another color name? Light blue?
See the last picture. It’s Mijumaru, which my daughter drew for this journal.
She bought the “White” version.
At first, she wanted to buy the “Black” version, but it wasn't at the shop.
She said, “I don’t care about Black or White.”
The main environment in the “Black” version is urban, and in “White” it is rural.
She could choose a character among three, with which the hero in the game traveled. or She could choose one of three starting characters who would accompany the hero throughout the game.
She picked up Mijumaru, who looks like a sea otter.
She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, how can I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
Well, mizuiro in Japanese is a compound of “mizu” and “iro.” Mizu means water and iro means color, so mizuiro literally means the color of the water.
You may wonder if there is a color of the water./You may wonder if water has a color.
However, in Japan, water has a color in the language.
She believed I could speak English and thought that I would know the English word for 'mizuiro'.
But, to tell you the truth, I didn’t know [the name of the color for mizuiro]/how to say 'mizuiro' in English.
I think the names of the colors are very easy words.
I was so surprised by that.
At the same time, this was one of the reason why my English hasn't been improving any more.
It’s a kind of ridiculous.
The first picture shows a string colored “mizuiro.” Japanese people call this color mizuiro, the color of the water.
> I think it's strange that even though water has no colour, many people will say it is blue haha
I agree with you. So that's why I wrote this journal.
http://www.crayola.com/colorcensus/history/current_120_colors.cfm
When I was a kid, and even still now I suppose, all kids used crayola crayons. I used to love all the fun names for the colors, it made it even more fun to play with them.
I have a running joke with my mom as well, that her crayon box is broken, because we can never agree on the color of something.
> her crayon box is broken, because we can never agree on the color of something.
The names of the colors aren't printed in the body of them, aren't they?
Crayola crayons are so colorful!
Here in Japan, sakura craypas is popular. Here's a link to it:
http://www.craypas.com/products/regular/craypas/
Sea Blue
Sea Foam Green
Forest Green
Kelly Green
Lemon Yellow
Tomato Red
You can understand. Sometimes, color names in catalogs don't even use color words:
Dusty Rose (aka pink)
Sand (aka tan)
Eggshell (aka white)
Rust (aka orange/brown)
Saphire (aka blue)
Emerald (aka green)
Ruby (aka red)
Many of these names from both lists describe color so accurately, that buyer knows exactly what color it is without a picture. Also, these types of color names often have a romantic or adventurous feeling, so they are good for marketing too.
Aqua is the closest thing we have to a name for "water color or mizuiro", but your picture doesn't look like aqua to me. Your picture looks like medium light blue. Aqua is darker and greener than that, but that is just my opinion (Aqua is often described as "greenish blue"). It's fun talking about color.
I design posters and leaflets as my job, so I often use this website:
http://www.colordic.org/w/
It is so different to recognize colors in different countries.
Thank you for your opinion.
I think the color in the first picture is called mizuiro by most Japanese, but Americans not. The colors, we see the same color, but we call them different names!
It's true people call colors different names, but in scientific studies, people can all see colors accurately and the same (baring color blindness). For my job, I had to take college classes about color called "Color Management". So I learned all about human color perception. Culture can affect our names for colors and preferences for colors, but when you eliminate those factors, we all see color the same way.
No. It is called "nando iro," but it's not commonly used. If I call it, I will call it ao-midori (blue-green).
Mizuiro is like this:
http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/2091.html
It is close to light blue:
http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/1046.html
Do you think so?
> "Color Management"
It sounds interesting! I design some things, but I haven't learn the colors formally. I make web pages too, so if I see the colors, I always guess this color is probably #add8e6 like that.
> but when you eliminate those factors, we all see color the same way.
I think this method is used in agricultural machines. The machines recognize how ripe fruits are and when the fruits get ripe, they harvest them. If we can determine the factor of the colors, we can program what color it is. It's just my guess though.
You actually don't need "color management" for design, but you do need "color theory". Color management is concerned with the scientific process of making the same color using different devices (like monitor, printer, paint, dye, fabric, etc). Using today's technology, it's very possible to match colors in any situation. "Color Theory" is all about the aesthetics of color for use in art and design. How to use different color combinations to tweak people's emotions and interests.
I didn't hear about those agriculture machines, but it sounds so interesting, and I think you are correct to point it out.
Yes, I do. Thank you for your advice!
I see. Aqua is a blue close to green. When I see a website on colors, I thought the color on the first picture must be "sky blue."
http://www.colordic.org/colorsample/1045.html (skyblue)
Here's a top page: http://www.colordic.org/
水色の街 you mentioned is a song by Spitz?
At first, she wanted to buy a the “Black” one, but there was no “Black” version at the shop.
The stage background on the “Black” version is urban, but the one on the “White” is rural.
She could choose a one character from among three, with which whom the hero in the game traveled.
She picked up Mijumaru, which looks like a sea otter. I don't know if Japanese personalizes animals. Many languages do not. The Scandinavian languages do not, for example, so I would call Barron "it" in Danish, while he's "him" in English. I think it's okay to use "which" in this case anyway.
She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, what can hhow do I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
Well, mizuiro in Japanese is compound word consisting of with “mizu” and “iro.” Mizu means water and iro means color, so mizuiro literally means the color of the water.
You may wonder whether there is a color of the water.
However, in Japanese, water has a color in the language.
It’s "mizuiro"
She believed thought I could speak English, and but she had no idea I didn’t know the English word for “mizuiro.” Neither did I.
To tell you the truth, I didn’t know the English name of for the color for mizuiro.
I think the English names of the color are very easy words.
I was so surprised at that the fact.
At the same time, this was one of the reasons why my English weren’t hasn't improved any more.
It’s a kind of ridiculous.
The first picture shows thread a string colored “mizuiro.” Japanese people call this color mizuiro, the color of the water.
Good writing! Very few corrections needed here!
> I don't know if Japanese personalizes animals.
In Japanese, we call a male animal he and a female one she.
I didn't know whether Mijumaru was he or she. I asked my daughter the gender and she said Mijumaru was a boy.
> Aqua is a "water" color, but so are many other shades
Yes, I got some answers and I learned it was impossible to translate the colors correctly because of the culture difference. However, I could get some close translations.
Your viewpoint in English is always fun.
I didn't have doubt that mizuiro in Japanese is a light blue, and I always expressed about colors like a reddish or bluish, when I cannot distinguish the color clearly.
I propose that a light blue will be called Mizuiro just like that Tsunami.
> I propose that a light blue will be called Mizuiro just like that Tsunami.
It's a good suggestion!
I thought there was a single word for mizuiro such as pink, red and blue. I have a lot of things to learn in English.
She bought the “White” version.
At first, she wanted to buy the “Black” one, but there was no “Black” version at the shop.
She could choose one of three companion characters for the hero.
She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, how can I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
You may object that water doesn't have a color.
However, in Japanese, water has a color.
I think the names of colors are very easy words.
At the same time, this was one of the reasons why my English wasn't improving any more.
It’s kind of ridiculous. (The phrase "a kind of" means "a type of"; "kind of" without any article means "somewhat".)
Water in the English-speaking world is traditionally considered to be "blue", but there isn't really any specific shade of blue that's particularly associated with water.
In reality, of course, small amounts of water pick up the colors of their surroundings, much like glass. Large bodies of deep water (e.g., Lake Erie) are typically a sort of dark blueish grey, but it depends on the weather. Water with a lot of air bubbles stirred into it (like a waterfall or a cresting wave) becomes white.
xkcd once ran a detailed survey of what people call various colors. You can see the basic results here:
http://xkcd.com/color/rgb/
Some commentary about the results (which is funny in places but also vulgar in places, you have been warned) can be found here:
http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/
I learned the discussion about the colors was really interesting.
Your comment about the color of water was impressive.
Yes, I agree with you. Air bullbles make the water white.
> http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/
It's a long discussion, but it looks interesting. I will find to read it. Thanks!
The setting of the “Black” version is urban, but the one on the “White” one is rural.
She could choose one of three characters (or Pokemon) to travel with the hero. (Pokemon is so popular that you can just say "Pokemon" and almost everybody will know what you mean.)
She wanted to name it and she asked me, “Mom, how can I say “mizuiro” in English?” The name of Mijumaru is related to mizu and his body color is mizuiro.
Well, mizuiro in Japanese is a compound with “mizu” and “iro.” Mizu means water and iro means color, so mizuiro literally means the color of the water literally.
However, in Japanese, water has a color in the language.
She believed I could speak English and it didn't occur to her that I might not know the English word for “mizuiro.” I myself was surprised that I couldn't think of it.
At the same time, this showed one of the reasons why my English hasn't been improving any more.
It’s a kind of ridiculous.
And of course she believed you could speak English. Your English is great!
> I think "aqua" is probably the right word.
Thank you for your opinion because my daughter dubbed Mijumaru as "aqua."
> And of course she believed you could speak English. Your English is great!
Your Japanese is also good. :)