have attracted very little attention from the Early Japanese. In later times the chief metals were named mostly according to their colour, as follows:
| Yellow | metal | (gold). |
| White | metal„ | (silver). |
| Red | metal„ | (copper). |
| Black | metal„ | (iron). |
| Chinese (or Korean) | (bronze). | |
But in the “Records” the only metal of which it is implied that it was in use from time immemorial is iron, while “various treasures dazzling to the eye, from gold and silver downwards,” are only referred to once as existing in the far-western land of Korea. Red clay is the sole kind of earth specially named.
The words relative to colour which occur are:—
- Black.
- Blue (including Green).
- Red.
- Piebald (of horses).
- White.
Yellow is not mentioned (except in the foreign Chinese phrase “the Yellow Stream,” signifying Hades, and not to be counted in this context), neither are any of the numerous terms which in Modern Japanese serve to distinguish delicate shades of colour. We hear of the “blue (or green), i.e. black[1]) clouds” and also of the “blue (or green), sea”; but the “blue sky” is conspicuous by its absence here as in so many other early literatures, though strangely enough it does occur in the oldest written monuments of the Chinese.
With regard to the subject of names for the different degrees of relationship,—a subject of sufficient interest to the student of sociology to warrant its being discussed at some length,—it may be stated that in modern Japanese parlance the categories according to which relationship is conceived of do not materially differ from those that are current in Europe. Thus we find father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle,
- ↑ Mr. Satow suggests that awo (“blue” or “green”) means properly any colour derived from the awi plant (Polygonum tinctorium).
