The radicals that make the first kanji of “sabiasagi” are quite interesting. The first radical
金 stands for “metal”, and the second 青, for “blue”. Both radicals together make “rust”. So our first guess is that it can only be talking about copper rust blue. The two next kanji in the word stand for 浅 "light” and 葱 “long onion”.
Asagi is a beloved color for kimono and yukata in June, because of the heat and the rain. The color inspires coolness, and blue skies, which are longed for!
Sabiasagi belongs to the indigo family, named “keito”, a system. I call it the “fragrance”. If deepest indigo was a flower, its fragrance would fade in the memory, as time passes.
Indigo as most of us know it, is laborious to achieve; the cloth has to be submerged repeatedly into the dye, up to fourty eight times...! All the levels of blue (Ai) achieved during this process have a different name on their own, starting from the color of the "roots of a spring onion".
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