Edoguro black walls

The well-known red color of the traditional buildings from Kyoto Gion or Shimabara was created by a pigment extracted from the iron oxide-rich soil of Bengal, India, provenience indicated by its Japanese name: bengara.

A lesser-known but equally impressive pigment, brought also from India, was used for the fireproof walled kurazukuri storehouses, which first appeared in Kawagoe, a small town near Edo. The plaster making them fire resistant is a local Japanese invention called shikkui, a combination of hydraulic lime and calcium carbonate plus a mix of natural components like seaweed extracts, soybean oil or even eggshells.

But this plaster is white and since the black color - Edoguro ("Edo black") - was extremely popular in the Kantō region during the end of the Edo period, the black was obtained by the use of India ink, know in Japan as bokujuu.