Red plum color

This color name evokes the image of red plum blossoms, but it is a light, bright spring color. Among the red dyeing techniques favored in the Heian period (794-1185), dark red was forbidden, but light red was especially favored. In The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, Sei Shonagon disliked the excessive use of this color, calling it "an awful color. In Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji (The Tale of Genji), crimson, plum, red, scarlet, and akane are described as the colors of passion and as proof of a man's love.