Kanji topic · 5 kanji

Colours in kanji

The basic Japanese colour kanji: 白 white, 黒 black, 赤 red and 青 blue, plus 色 (iro), the word for colour itself. Add い and they become adjectives, as in 赤い (akai, red). Traditionally 青 also covered green, which is why a green traffic light is called 青信号 (aoshingō).

• 白

  White N5

  On はく、びゃく

  Kun しろ、しら-、しろい

• 黒

  Black N4

  On こく

  Kun くろ、くろずむ、くろい

• 赤

  Red N4

  On せき、しゃく

  Kun あか、あか-、あかい、あからむ、あからめる

• 青

  Blue, Green N4

  On せい、しょう

  Kun あお、あお-、あおい

• 色

  Color N4

  On しょく、しき

  Kun いろ

Kanji readings, meanings and frequency from KANJIDIC2, © Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. JLPT levels from Jonathan Waller's JLPT resources (CC BY).