Color Kanji in Japanese: Red, Blue, White, Black & More

Colors in Japanese come in two grammatical flavors: some are true adjectives (you can say “a red car” in one word), others are nouns that need の. The kanji are the same; the grammar differs.

The i-adjective colors

Four colors conjugate as i-adjectives — red, blue, white, black:

The noun-only colors

Most other colors are nouns and need の before a noun: 緑の車 (midori no kuruma, a green car), not “midorii.” These include 緑 (midori, green), 黄色 (kiiro, yellow), 茶色 (chairo, brown), 紫 (murasaki, purple).

The famous 青/緑 overlap

青 historically covered both blue and green, which is why a green traffic light is called 青信号 (ao shingō) and fresh greenery is 青葉 (aoba). Modern Japanese has 緑 for green, but the old usage survives in many fixed phrases.