Heian era
Cherry Blossom & Young Bamboo— 桜と若竹
The softest pink of cherry blossoms set beside young bamboo green — spring, captured.
#F9D5E0
pink · 1 palette
Sakura
桜
Cherry blossom pink
About Sakura
Sakura (桜) is a light, vivid pink tone. Its hex value is #F9D5E0 — that is
RGB 249, 213, 224, or HSL 342°, 75%, 91%.
Cherry blossom pink.
It holds 15.6:1 contrast against dark, so Sakura works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 1.3:1; on black 15.6:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Sakura appears in 1 combination — most often paired with Wakatake, Kinari and Matsuba.
Colours that go with Sakura
From a standard colour wheel, Sakura anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
Complementary
#F9D5E0 #D5F9EE
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
Analogous
#F9D5E0 #F9D5F2 #F9DCD5
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
Triadic
#F9D5E0 #E0F9D5 #D5E0F9
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
Split-complementary
#F9D5E0 #D5F9DC #D5F2F9
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
How to use Sakura
Sakura is a light, vivid tone (HSL 342°, 75%, 91%), which makes it a soft background or a light accent. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a dark background (15.6:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use dark lettering. Pair it with its complement (#D5F9EE) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#F9D5F2 and #F9DCD5) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Palettes with Sakura
Sakura appears in 1 combination from the archive. For how usage like this compares across the whole dictionary, see the data analysis of all 348 plates.
From the archive
Support the archive The full catalog, on your disk, as a thank-you.
- All 378 palettes (348 Wada + 30 editorial) in five formats
- Figma design tokens (W3C-spec JSON, drag into any file)
- Tailwind v4 + v3 configs — drop into any project
- CSS custom properties — every plate, one stylesheet
- 378 museum SVG plates — print-ready at any size
- Full JSON — colors, names, eras, moods, dominant hues
See what's inside
Launching soon. The free archive stays free, always.