Where Color Meets Scent and Music: A Kansei Psychology Study Meeting Comes to Nagoya

The Tokai Branch of the Color Science Association of Japan will host a study meeting titled "The Kansei Psychology of Color, Scent, and Music" on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at the Hoshigaoka Campus of Aichi Shukutoku University in Nagoya. Centered on color, the session explores how "kansei"—our capacity for sensibility and emotional perception—links different sensory domains such as smell and sound.

📝 Note

Kansei is a Japanese concept referring to sensibility, aesthetic sensitivity, and the intuitive, emotional response we have to sensory impressions. "Kansei psychology" studies how these impressions form and how they connect across the senses.

About the Study Meeting

The speaker is Tadayuki Wakata, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at Tokai Gakuen University. He studied under Professor Miho Saito at the Graduate School of Waseda University and specializes in kansei psychology. Taking color as his central axis, he has pursued cross-modal research that bridges color with scent and music.

The theme of this session is the expression of kansei imagery through color. It introduces an approach that looks one step beyond conventional color-harmony research into "harmony" itself.

📝 Note

Cross-modal refers to the phenomenon in which multiple senses—sight, smell, hearing, and others—influence one another. We unconsciously link the senses together, as when a "high pitch feels like a bright color" or a "sweet scent feels like a warm hue."

Key Points of the Session

A research presentation on the impression-based expression of kansei information, with color at its center
A theme that crosses into other fields such as scent and music
Color-based kansei imagery as the next step beyond "harmony" research

Because it treats color as a cross-disciplinary theme while grounded in the field of psychology, the session offers something for a wide range of people interested in color.

Who It's For

Those interested in the relationship between color and the mind
Those curious about the connections between the senses, such as scent and music
Students, researchers, and practitioners studying color

📌 Point

The perspective that "color is a theme that crosses disciplines" gives valuable breadth to the study of color. This study meeting is well suited to anyone who wants to connect their knowledge of color harmony to the expression of sensibility and imagery.

Event Details

Date & Time: Saturday, August 8, 2026, 2:00 PM–3:30 PM (JST)
Venue: Aichi Shukutoku University, Hoshigaoka Campus, Building 1, Room 13B (23 Sakuragaoka, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya; a 3-minute walk from Exit 3 of Hoshigaoka Station on the Higashiyama Subway Line)
Admission: 2,000 yen (payable at the venue). Free for regular and supporting members of the Color Science Association of Japan, as well as students. Also free for those who apply for membership by the registration deadline.
Registration Deadline: 5:00 PM, Friday, July 31, 2026
Registration Form: Application Form
Membership Information: Color Science Association of Japan – Membership Page
Contact: Tokai Branch Office, Color Science Association of Japan (Homma) / homma-h@tokaigakuen-u.ac.jp