著者

井本 英一 Eiichi Imoto 桃山学院大学文学部(元)

雑誌

国際文化論集 = INTERCULTURAL STUDIES (ISSN:09170219)

巻号頁・発行日

no.36, pp.1-32, 2007-06-20

---

The color blue is seen on the borders of the inside and outside of a home, in this world and the next world, so it is the color of the funeral, the marriage and other rites. Messengers from the other world used to wear blue clothes, and maids or servants of this world had blue clothes on. The executioner's clothes had something blue and the condemned criminal's had, too. A sacrifice, human or animal, had something blue. A man on his deathbed would change his usual clothes for blue ones. The dead person was thought to be an offering to the gods. The color blue was the symbol of giving vigor and energy to the god. The blue colors were used from the royal divine families to the common people. On the New Year, Emperors of China and Japan put on blue clothes. The Virgin Mary also wore a blue mantle.