About

IRO ALMANAC is a collection of color palettes drawn from everyday scenes in Japan — a box of sweets, a café bench, a mural in a subway station, a rooster crossing the grounds of a shrine.

Every palette here begins as a single photograph, taken in a real place at a real moment. Nothing is staged and nothing is retouched. Each palette is recorded together with its location, its season, and its time of day — because color in Japan changes with all three.

The Name

Iro (色) is the Japanese word for color. An almanac is a record of the seasons. Japan has long divided the year more finely than four seasons, so this site uses twelve — from Midwinter to Early Winter, with the rainy season of June counted as a season of its own.

How the Palettes Are Made

Each photograph is reduced to a handful of colors — usually five. The selection keeps not only the dominant tones but also the small accents that give a scene its character: the red of a rooster’s comb, the deep blue of a cushion on a wooden bench. Locations are shown at neighborhood level only.

Using the Palettes

You are welcome to use the palettes — the color combinations and their HEX codes — freely in your own work, personal or commercial. Credit is appreciated but not required. The photographs themselves may not be reproduced or redistributed without permission.

Some palettes are made from photographs and artwork contributed by others. Their work appears here with permission and is credited both on the page and on the palette card itself. The same terms apply: the palettes are free to use, the images are not.

For permission to use a photograph, or for licensing inquiries, please write to info@iroalmanac.com.

Elsewhere

IRO ALMANAC is also on Instagram and Pinterest.

How this site handles data is described in the privacy policy.