A Dictionary of Colour Combinations, Volume 2

Last updated: 5 October 2026

What you get for the money

A paperback of 336 pages, 148 by 107mm and 230 grams, so it fits in a coat pocket. Seigensha Art Publishing brought out this edition on 3 January 2020, EAN 9784861527722.

Inside are two of Wada's original works. The first ran across 1935 and 1936 and sets out 72 combinations of three to seven colours, one group for each month of the Japanese year. The second, from 1938, holds 165 combinations taken from the clothes, rooms and printed matter around him. Both name every colour in Japanese and in English.

Key facts

• Price: £21.79 at Bookshop.org UK; £19.50 at Present & Correct when in stock
• Size: paperback, 148 x 107 x 17mm, 230g
• Pages: 336
• Contents: 72 seasonal combinations, plus 165 from fashion, interiors and graphic design
• Languages: colour names in Japanese and English
• Publisher: Seigensha Art Publishing, 3 January 2020, EAN 9784861527722
• Source works: published 1935 to 1936, and 1938

Who Sanzo Wada was

Wada lived from 1883 to 1967 and worked as a painter and a costume designer. He compiled the first colour dictionary across 1933 and 1934, and it was the first book of its kind published in Japan.

In 1945 he reorganised the Japan Standard Color Association into the Japan Color Research Laboratory and ran it. By 1951 he had finished Japan's first comprehensive standard colour chart. Three years later he won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Gate of Hell, a Daiei film that also took the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year. He handled its colour design as well as its costumes.

Why designers keep buying it

The combinations are unusual. Wada worked from Japanese seasons and Japanese printing, so the groupings do not follow a Western colour wheel.

Every colour has a name, which makes a palette easier to talk about with a client than six hex codes.

It is small enough to carry. At 148 by 107mm, about the size of a postcard, it goes in a bag or a coat pocket.

The design section is clearly dated. Its 165 combinations come from Japanese design of the 1910s to 1930s, and the book says so.

Volume 1 or Volume 2

Volume 1 is the better known of the pair. It reprints the 1933 to 1934 collection of colour pairings, and Seigensha brought it back in 2010. That is the one most people mean when they talk about the colour dictionary.

Volume 2 is a different book rather than more of the same. Its seasonal groupings run to seven colours, where Volume 1 mostly pairs them. Its design section comes from real printed and worn material. The covers look alike and the titles differ by one numeral, so check which one somebody already owns.

The limits

It is a small paperback, so the colour patches are small too. Anyone hoping for large swatches will be disappointed.

It is Volume 2. It makes most sense for someone who already owns Volume 1, and less for someone who owns neither.

Bookshop.org UK quotes up to three weeks for dispatch, so order early if it is a present.

Where to buy it in the UK

Bookshop.org UK sells it for £21.79 and shares its profit with independent bookshops. Present & Correct, the Clerkenwell stationery shop, sells it for £19.50 but was sold out when we checked; its product page shows when stock returns.

A Dictionary of Colour Combinations Vol 2 at Bookshop.org

FAQs

How much is A Dictionary of Colour Combinations Volume 2?

£21.79 at Bookshop.org UK on 5 October 2026. Present & Correct lists it at £19.50 but was sold out that day.

Is Volume 2 a reprint of the original?

No. Volume 1 reprints the 1933 to 1934 pairings. Volume 2 collects two later works, published across 1935 to 1936 and in 1938.

Do I need Volume 1 first?

No, each stands alone. Volume 1 is the better known, so it is the safer gift for somebody who owns neither.

Are the colours printed accurately?

Seigensha prints the series with colour fidelity in mind, but no printed book matches a screen exactly. Treat the swatches as a starting point.

Is it in English?

The colour names are in Japanese and English. The book is mostly colour plates, so there is little running text.

More from CoolCuration

• The £25 and under gift guide: everything the site lists at this price, in one grid.
• Wabi-sabi: Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers: another small Japanese design book for the shelf.
• The gift guide for designers: a wider shortlist at every price.
• theprintspace discount code: money off printing, for when a palette becomes artwork.
• Penpot: the free, open-source design tool, for using those palettes on screen.

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