Blue
群青色
Gunjō-iro
Ultramarine
A deep, saturated blue from crushed azurite mineral pigment used in nihonga painting.
Color codes
HEX
#4C6CB3
COPIEDRGB
rgb(76, 108, 179)
COPIEDHSL
hsl(221, 40%, 50%)
COPIEDCMYK
cmyk(58, 40, 0, 30)
COPIEDOrigin
Traditional Japanese painting (nihonga) grinds azurite into powder and mixes it with animal-hide glue. The resulting mineral blue has been used since the Nara period for Buddhist temple murals and byōbu folding-screen backgrounds — a slower, hand-ground counterpart to the imported synthetic Prussian blue (bero-ai) that Edo woodblock printers later adopted.
Where you'll see it
Traditional painting, luxury tableware, intellectual brand accents.
Contrast & accessibility
Calculating contrast against black and white…
Harmony palette
Computed from the color wheel — base, analogous (±30°), complementary, and triad. Click any swatch to copy.
Tip: analogous colors read as calm; complementary and triad add contrast for calls-to-action.