Edo era
Kite Brown & Gold— 鳶と黄金
The warm brown of a kite's wing lit by afternoon gold.
#8A5A3B
brown · 1 palette
Tobi
鳶
Kite brown
About Tobi
Tobi (鳶) is a deep, muted brown tone. Its hex value is #8A5A3B — that is
RGB 138, 90, 59, or HSL 24°, 40%, 39%.
Kite brown.
It holds 5.8:1 contrast against white, so Tobi works best for body text, headings, and UI labels. (On white it scores 5.8:1; on black 3.6:1.)
Across Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, Tobi appears in 1 combination — most often paired with Kogane and Sumi.
The story of Tobi
Tobi (鳶) takes its name from the Japanese black kite, the bird whose wing colour the dye-makers were trying to match. The result is a warm ink-brown — darker than chocolate, redder than sepia, with a particular rust undertone that reads as weathered rather than aged. It's a workhorse warm-axis colour: traditional craft objects, lacquerware bases, leather tones in Edo-period merchant clothing.
Tobi anchors the warm side of a wabi-sabi palette without pulling toward saturation. It's the colour that lets a cream anchor and a celadon mid-tone read as 'tea ceremony' rather than 'Scandinavian.' Modern usage: heritage food brands, leather and craft goods, restaurant identity for places trading on age.
See Tobi in the Japanese Color Glossary →
How often colors like this recur across the 348 plates — the data analysis →
Colours that go with Tobi
From a standard colour wheel, Tobi anchors these four classic schemes. Each swatch is computed from its exact hue, so every hex is a real, usable pairing.
Complementary
#8A5A3B #3B6B8A
the hue directly opposite — the highest-contrast pairing, good for a single bold accent.
Analogous
#8A5A3B #8A3B43 #8A823B
the two neighbours on the wheel — a calm, cohesive scheme that feels effortless.
Triadic
#8A5A3B #3B8A5A #5A3B8A
two hues an even third of the wheel away — balanced and lively without clashing.
Split-complementary
#8A5A3B #3B8A82 #3B438A
the two colours either side of the complement — the contrast of a complement, softened.
How to use Tobi
Tobi is a deep, muted tone (HSL 24°, 40%, 39%), which makes it a versatile mid-tone for accents, buttons or blocks. For text it passes WCAG AA for body text against a light background (5.8:1) — safe for paragraphs, buttons and labels. When you do set type on it, use light lettering. Pair it with its complement (#3B6B8A) for a focal accent, or with its analogous neighbours (#8A3B43 and #8A823B) for a quieter, harmonious feel.
Palettes with Tobi
Tobi 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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