# A Dictionary of Color Combinations: The Original and Its Editions

> A Dictionary of Color Combinations is a 2010 reissue of a much larger set of color books that Sanzo Wada published in Tokyo in the 1930s, and a second volume followed in 2020. Here is what each edition contains, why the numbers quoted for it disagree, and how its printed swatches became the hex values on this site.

Published: 2026-10-31
Canonical: https://espectro.dev/journal/a-dictionary-of-color-combinations-editions

The book most people know as *A Dictionary of Color Combinations* is a small, thick paperback, about the size of a pocket notebook, published in Kyoto by Seigensha in 2010. Its contents are much older. They come from *Haishoku Sōkan*, a set of color combination books that the painter and color researcher [Sanzo Wada](/journal/who-was-sanzo-wada) published in Tokyo in 1933 and 1934. In 2020 Seigensha added a second volume drawn from other Wada publications of the same decade.

Between the original, the two reissues and the many websites built on them, the numbers quoted for "Wada's dictionary" vary a great deal: over a thousand combinations, 348, 237, six volumes, twelve. Most of these numbers are correct. They just describe different books.

## The original: *Haishoku Sōkan* (1933–34)

*Haishoku Sōkan* translates roughly as "a complete survey of color combinations." Library records give the publisher as Hakubisha, Tokyo, with publication in Shōwa 8 and 9, that is, 1933 and 1934.

Accounts of its size differ, and the reason seems to be that it was issued in parts rather than as a single book.

- **Seigensha**, the modern publisher, describes the original as six volumes, beginning in 1933.
- **The National Diet Library** in Tokyo holds a 1935 reprint of the "A" series (*A-hen*) as numbered fascicles: numbers 1, 3 to 8 and 10 to 12, ten booklets in all, each 12 by 18 cm. They are digitized, marked public domain, and readable online.
- **A "B" series** (*B-hen*) followed. Seigensha's Japanese description dates it to Shōwa 9 and 10 (1934–35); its English description of the same book says 1935–36.

I could not find a source that explains how the six volumes and the numbered fascicles relate. It is possible that "six volumes" counts bound books while the library counts the booklets inside them, but that is a guess, and this article does not rely on it.

The English Wikipedia article says the original documents over a thousand color combinations. I could not confirm that figure in a library record or publisher description, but it is consistent with a multi-part work of this size, and it explains why later selections are so much smaller.

The original was a working manual. The table of contents of the A series' twelfth fascicle begins with an introduction, a section on how to read and handle the colors, and a section on reading colors by number and symbol. Wada was running the Japan Standard Color Association at the time, and the book was built to be used with a notation, not only looked at.

How the color plates were printed is not stated in any source I could find, so it is left open here.

## The reissue: *A Dictionary of Color Combinations* (2010)

Seigensha's Japanese title is *Haishoku Jiten: Taishō Shōwa no Shikisai Nōto*, roughly "Dictionary of Color Combinations: Color Notes from the Taishō and Shōwa Eras." The publisher's own listing gives a release date of July 1, 2010, 352 pages, softcover, 148 by 105 mm, ISBN 978-4-86152-247-5. Text is in Japanese with English captions.

The publisher's Japanese description says the book reissues *Haishoku Sōkan* in a new, revised edition (*shinsō kaiteiban*), collects 348 combinations, and gives CMYK values and a printed color chip for every color table. The commentary is by Gentarō Ōmi, then chairman of the Japan Color Research Institute, the organization Wada founded in 1927 as the Japan Standard Color Association.

Two details cause confusion online:

- **Date.** Seigensha lists 2010. The English Wikipedia article and some bookseller listings give 2011. The sources do not explain the difference; it may reflect a later printing or overseas distribution, but I could not confirm either.
- **Page count.** Seigensha gives 352 pages. One library catalog gives 281 pages plus 71 unnumbered pages of plates, which adds up to the same 352. Other listings give 256 or 354.

## Vol. 2 (2020)

The sequel is *Haishoku Jiten: Ōyō-hen*, the "applied" volume, subtitled *Taishō Shōwa no Shikisai to Shōhin Dezain* (color and product design of the Taishō and Shōwa eras). In English it is sold as *A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2*. Seigensha's English page gives 336 pages and the same pocket format, ISBN 978-4-86152-772-2. It lists a release date of March 1, 2020; the Japanese book trade database gives March 23, 2020.

It reprints two works:

- **The B series of *Haishoku Sōkan*** (dated 1934–35 or 1935–36, as above).
- **A design collection, *Shinsaku Gohyaku Zuanshū*** ("five hundred new designs"), dated 1938 by Seigensha. One library record cites 1937.

Its contents are organized differently from the first volume. Part 1 has 72 combinations of three to seven colors arranged by the twelve months of the Japanese year. Part 2 shows combinations taken from fashion, interior and graphic design of the early Shōwa period. Seigensha's English page and one line of its Japanese description give 165 of these, for a total of 237. Another line of the same Japanese description says 161.

The color names differ too. Vol. 2 uses traditional Japanese color names, such as *chōshun-iro*, *hana-asagi* and *ume-nezu*, with English translations, and has 172 removable color chips at the back.

None of the Vol. 2 combinations appear on espectro.dev.

## Editions at a glance

| | *Haishoku Sōkan* | *A Dictionary of Color Combinations* | *A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published | 1933–34 (A series); B series 1934–35 or 1935–36 | 2010 (some sources: 2011) | 2020 |
| Publisher | Hakubisha, Tokyo | Seigensha, Kyoto | Seigensha, Kyoto |
| Format | Multiple parts; "six volumes" (Seigensha), A series fascicles numbered to 12 (National Diet Library), 12 × 18 cm | Softcover, 148 × 105 mm, 352 pages | Softcover, 148 × 105 mm, 336 pages |
| Combinations | Over 1,000 (Wikipedia; not confirmed elsewhere) | 348 | 237 (72 + 165), or 233 by one count |
| Colors | Not stated in sources found | 159 (per the open dataset) | 172 color chips |
| Color data | Notation by number and symbol | CMYK value and chip for each color | Japanese color names with English translations, chips |
| On espectro.dev | Only through the 2010 selection | Yes, all 348 | No |

## What the 348 combinations on this site are

The [348 combinations](/sanzo-wada) and [159 colors](/colors) on espectro.dev are the contents of the 2010 volume, as transcribed in an open dataset. The data was first compiled by Dain M. Blodorn Kim for an interactive web version of the book, then forked and corrected by Matt DesLauriers, who publishes it on GitHub as [dictionary-of-colour-combinations](https://github.com/mattdesl/dictionary-of-colour-combinations) under the MIT license.

The dataset keeps the book's order. The 159 colors are split into six swatch chapters, roughly by hue: 38 reds, pinks and red-purples (from [Hermosa Pink](/colors/hermosa-pink) onward), 49 yellows, oranges, olives and browns, 23 greens, 23 blues, 20 violets and purples, and 6 neutrals ending with [Black](/colors/black). The combinations are numbered by size:

- **1 to 120** are pairs, such as [combination 1](/combinations/1), English Red with Cerulian Blue.
- **121 to 240** are groups of three, such as [combination 176](/combinations/176), Hermosa Pink, Seashell Pink and Calamine Blue.
- **241 to 348** are groups of four, such as [combination 261](/combinations/261), shown at the top of this article.

A note on the English names. Many of them, including Hermosa Pink, [Calamine Blue](/colors/calamine-blue), [Isabella Color](/colors/isabella-color) and [Cotinga Purple](/colors/cotinga-purple), also appear in Robert Ridgway's *Color Standards and Color Nomenclature*, an American color reference published in 1912, and several more match with small spelling differences (Ridgway's Sulphur Yellow and Cerulean Blue appear in the dataset as [Sulpher Yellow](/colors/sulpher-yellow) and [Cerulian Blue](/colors/cerulian-blue)). I found no source that explains where the English names in the reissue came from, so this is an observation from comparing the two lists, not a claim about Wada's method.

## Why the numbers quoted online differ

Most disagreements trace back to one of these:

- **Original versus selection.** "Over a thousand" describes *Haishoku Sōkan*; 348 describes the 2010 selection from it.
- **Volume 1 versus Volume 2.** 348 and 237 are different books. Together they make 585, a figure that sometimes appears without explanation.
- **Volumes versus fascicles.** "Six volumes" comes from the publisher; the National Diet Library catalogs fascicles numbered up to 12 in the A series alone.
- **Colors versus chips.** 159 is the number of distinct colors in the first volume; 172 is the number of removable chips in the second.
- **Dates.** 1933–34 is the original A series. 1931 belongs to a different Wada book, a compendium of color names. 2010 and 2011 both circulate for the reissue.

## From printed swatch to hex value

The reissue gives each color as a CMYK value: percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Hermosa Pink, for example, is 0, 30, 6, 0. That describes ink on paper, not light on a screen, and there is no single correct way to turn it into a hex code. The answer depends on the press, inks and paper the CMYK values assume.

DesLauriers' dataset converts each value with color management software, using the U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2 profile as the assumed print condition and sRGB as the screen space. Hermosa Pink comes out as `#f9c1ce`. His README is candid that there may still be differences from the book's printed swatches, because the conversion is not exact. The full chain, including what the choice of profile does and which colors fall outside what a screen can show, is covered in [From Print to Screen](/journal/sanzo-wada-colors-from-print-to-screen).

For practical purposes:

- **Treat the hex values as close approximations**, not as measurements of the printed page.
- **Expect the book to look different from a screen**, and two printings of the book to differ slightly from each other.
- **Use the CMYK values for print** and the hex values for screens, and proof anything color-critical on the real output.
- **Remember the original is older still.** The 2010 CMYK values are themselves a modern reproduction of 1930s plates, and nothing here reconstructs those plates directly.

For how the data is served and used on this site, see [Sanzo Wada's Colors in Your Code](/journal/sanzo-wada-colors-in-your-code).

## Sources

- National Diet Library, *Haishoku Sōkan*, A series, fascicles 6, 8 and 12, 1935 reprint (Hakubisha), digitized records. [ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp](https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/en/books/R100000039-I1145842)
- Canadian Centre for Architecture library records for *Haishoku Jiten* (2010) and *Haishoku Jiten: Ōyō-hen* (2020), including notes on the originals. [cca.qc.ca](https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search/details/library/publication/763320580), [cca.qc.ca](https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/search/details/library/publication/1147744071)
- Seigensha, *A Dictionary of Color Combinations*, publisher page. [en.seigensha.com](https://en.seigensha.com/books/978-4-86152-247-5/)
- Seigensha, *A Dictionary of Color Combinations Vol. 2*, publisher page. [en.seigensha.com](https://en.seigensha.com/books/978-4-86152-772-2/)
- Hanmoto.com, Japanese publisher descriptions and tables of contents for both volumes. [hanmoto.com](https://www.hanmoto.com/bd/isbn/9784861522475), [hanmoto.com](https://www.hanmoto.com/bd/isbn/9784861527722)
- Wikipedia, "Sanzo Wada." [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanzo_Wada)
- Matt DesLauriers, *dictionary-of-colour-combinations*, README (MIT). [github.com](https://github.com/mattdesl/dictionary-of-colour-combinations)
- Dain M. Blodorn Kim, *sanzo-wada*, the original transcription and web version. [github.com](https://github.com/dblodorn/sanzo-wada)
- Robert Ridgway, *Color Standards and Color Nomenclature* (1912), Project Gutenberg text. [gutenberg.org](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63087)