Crimson & Cerulean & Black

Cerulean (deep, cyan blue — the specific deep, classic cyan blue of the Japanese Edo-period indigo-dyed cotton kimono — the most characteristic and the most extensively worn everyday fabric of the Japanese merchant and artisan classes during the Edo period — 1603-1868 CE) and Black (absolute — the most profound and the most immediately austere of all Japanese theatrical colors — the absolute black of the kabuki hanamichi and main stage floor — the most dramatically stark and the most formally simple theatrical ground of any major world theater tradition) create the most specifically Japanese kabuki and the most dramatically theatrical cool-dark pair. Against Crimson's passionate kumadori-face-paint warm, this creates the most specifically Japanese kabuki theatrical palette.

The palette is the visual world of Japanese kabuki theater — the most elaborate and the most immediately visually spectacular of all Japanese traditional performing arts (歌舞伎 — kabuki — from Japanese: ka — 'song' + bu — 'dance' + ki — 'skill' — the most immediately dramatic and the most comprehensively theatrical of the three major Japanese traditional performing arts — alongside nō and bunraku puppet theater — developed in Edo — present-day Tokyo — in the early 17th century CE and reaching its most elaborate and the most artistically complete form in the late Edo and early Meiji periods). The kabuki palette: the deep vivid crimson of the kumadori face paint (the characteristic vivid crimson-to-deep-red of the most immediately internationally recognizable element of kabuki theatrical makeup — the kumadori — the most dramatically designed and the most structurally specific theatrical facial painting in any world theater tradition — specifically the most characteristic crimson-line design of the most passionate, the most heroically virtuous, and the most dramatically powerful kabuki character types); the deep cerulean of the Edo indigo kimono (the specific deep cyan blue of the Japanese Edo-period Aizome — indigo-dyed cotton fabric — the most extensively worn and the most immediately characteristic textile of the Edo period Japanese common people); and the absolute black of the kabuki stage (the most dramatic and the most austere theatrical ground color — the absolute black of the pine-board stage floor and the most traditionally decorated hanamichi — the runway extending through the audience into the main playing space).