Sanzo Wada · Colour Palettes

About Sanzo Wada

Sanzo Wada (1883–1967) was a Japanese artist, costume designer, and professor who compiled the Dictionary of Colour Combinations from his six-volume Haishoku Soukan, originally published in the 1930s for kimono and fashion design. Seigensha published the collected edition in 2010. The work contains 348 palettes grounded in natural observation and cultural memory.

His approach prioritises surprising harmony over safe gradation. Where algorithmic generators produce colours sharing obvious relationships, Wada juxtaposes temperatures, saturations, and cultural contexts to create combinations that shouldn't work but do. The 23 palettes curated here are selected for range across temperature, harmony type, and contrast — and for combinations that are striking without being obvious.

Colour values are derived from Wada's original CMYK specifications, converted to hex via the open-source dataset by Dain M. Blodorn Kim. Combination numbers reference Wada's original catalogue. Click any swatch to copy its hex code to clipboard.

Click any palette to explore the full combination and find related palettes

Colour Proportion Rules

These rules govern how Wada's combinations are applied in practice — not just which colours, but how much of each. Knowing the proportion logic lets you extend any palette with confidence.

Proportion Rule

60 · 30 · 10

60% dominant (walls, background, base garment), 30% secondary (upholstery, layering piece, primary surface), 10% accent (objects, accessories, highlight). Prevents any single colour from overwhelming the composition while ensuring the accent reads clearly.

Proportion Rule

50 · 25 · 15 · 10

For four-colour palettes. The 50% dominant still anchors; the remaining three are graduated. Avoid distributing four colours equally — even weighting creates visual competition. One must dominate.

Contrast Rule

Value Before Hue

Establish light/dark contrast before considering colour. A palette that reads clearly in greyscale will work in colour. Wada's strongest combinations always have clear value hierarchy — light, mid, and dark — not just hue variety.

Harmony Rule

Temperature Balance

Every warm colour benefits from a cool anchor, and vice versa. Pure temperature one-way compositions feel monotonous. A single opposing-temperature note — often the accent — provides depth. The tension is what makes it interesting.

Saturation Rule

One Saturated, Many Muted

Reserve full saturation for one colour in a multi-colour palette. All others should be muted, neutralised, or darkened. The saturated colour becomes the focal point; muted companions give it room to read. This is why Wada's "wrong" combinations work.

Coherence Rule

Shared Undertone

Colours that appear very different can cohere if they share an undertone — all slightly warm, all slightly grey, all slightly green. This is how Wada creates unity across unexpected hue pairings: the colours look different but feel related.