Obangsaek
Traditional Korean color spectrum
The traditional Korean color spectrum, also known as obangsaek (Korean: 오방색; lit. 'five direction colors'), is the color scheme of the five Korean traditional colors of white, black, blue, red and yellow. In Korean traditional arts and traditional textile patterns, the colors of obangsaek represent five cardinal directions. Obangsaek theory is a combination of the Five Elements and Five Colors theories.
01Five orientations
- Blue: east
- Red: south
- Yellow: center
- White: west
- Black: north
These elementary colors are also associated with the Five Elements in Korean culture:
The following five intermediary colors are associated with the five elements and five directions in traditional Korean culture:
- Green: Wood, East
- Orange: Fire, South
- Grey: Earth, Center
- Aquamarine: Metal, West
- Purple: Water, North
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Obangsaek”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- KoreanColorSpectrum.jpg by Regis Flanagan, CC BY-SA 4.0
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