Muromachi era
Celadon & Unbleached— 青磁と生成
Celadon pottery green beside the unbleached warmth of raw silk.
green · 1 palette
青磁
Celadon green
Seiji (青磁) is a mid-tone, near-neutral green tone. Its hex value is #8DB6A5 — that is
RGB 141, 182, 165, or HSL 155°, 22%, 63%.
Celadon green.
It holds 9.4:1 contrast against dark, so Seiji works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 2.2:1; on black 9.4:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Seiji appears in 1 combination — most often paired with Kinari and Matsuba.
Seiji (青磁) is the celadon green of the Chinese-influenced Korean and Japanese ceramic traditions. The name refers literally to the iron-glaze celadon ware — fired with a thin coat of iron-bearing slip that vitrifies into a pale grey-green. Centuries of tea-ceremony and incense-ceremony objects have established the colour as inseparable from quiet refinement.
Modern usage: skincare and wellness brands, hospitality identity, ceramics, anywhere the brief asks for 'green that doesn't read as nature.' Seiji is one of the colours that makes a Japandi palette feel Japanese rather than just Scandinavian-with-green — the cool axis of a properly executed Japandi system almost always passes through this hue.
See Seiji in the Japanese Color Glossary →
How often colors like this recur across the 348 plates — the data analysis →
From a standard colour wheel, Seiji anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
Seiji is a mid-tone, muted tone (HSL 155°, 22%, 63%), which makes it a versatile mid-tone for accents, buttons or blocks. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a dark background (9.4:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use light lettering. Pair it with its complement (#B68D9E) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#8DB691 and #8DB3B6) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Seiji 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
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