lol, pink is fine with me . . . all my emblems are pink aka (cherry blossom red), the subaru stars emblem in front and the WRX emblem in the back !

 

im no too sure, but i like it, and hey do u see many other companies that have the ***** to make their icons pink

 

You should of set up a camera. That would have been priceless!LOL

 

I agree. Yashio Factory in Japan is a tuning shop that only uses that fuschia color to paint all its cars, and they are all monsters. the color is that shop's signature.

 

Hmmm... time to set the record straight!

STi's official color is not pink, it's "sakura no iro" which literally translated is "cherry blossom color". The cherry blossom is a very deep cultural symbol in Japan and has a variety of meanings. The samurai believed that an ideal life would be like that of a cherry blossom: to fall at the peak of one's majesty and beauty, just as the cherry blossom in the spring. The cherry blossom also represents the quest for perfection, since many Japanese have "hanami" or cherry blossom viewings in the spring. In these viewings, many Japanese take the time to appreciate the natural beauty of the cherry blossom while looking for the perfect bloom. Hence, STi's quest for perfection mirrors the "hanami". The cherry blossom is also a representative flower for the nation and spirit of Japan (while the chrysanthemum is the symbol of the Japanese imperial family).

As for other flashy colors, in Japan colors like pink, fuscia, purple, etc. aren't seen as feminine but are seen as vibrant. Hence, many modified cars carry these sort of color schemes to attract attention. Japanese and other Asians DO NOT consider pink to "masculine".

As an aside, did you know that the Japanese consider blue to be a shade of green?

 

What would we do with out Choku Dori to tell us what all this crazy japanease stuff really means

 

Thanks everyone,

I was hoping there might have been a story behind it, but this has been great reading on all of the different reasons why Pink, errrr, Cherry Blossem Red.

I llike this
"It is a signature color that stands for all out performance and can make non-Subie people cry like little girls. "

 

Thanks to Choko Dori for the excellent information on the symbolic meaning of "cherry blossom color" (pink) in Asia and on the STI.

I have an historical angle on the color pink, and one which reinforces the attention-getting qualities of the color.

Another passion in my life (besides the WRX) is wooden boats. Old wooden boats like the one I've restored. So, I've learned some things about varnish, paint and the colors used on boats.

Back in the mid 19th-century (1800's) when the fast schooners were making the transition from sail to steam power, sailors had a need for attention-getting paints, just like they do now. Something that would stand out as a warning color, too.

Sailors needed the toughest paint they could find for marine use, and the best was enamel, which at that time was linseed oil based and didn't last very long. Colors were limited, too.

Anyway, after some experimentation it was discovered that pink was the most visible color for the severe light and weather conditions at sea (even better than yellow or dark red), and before you knew it, sailors were painting everything from crab pots to channel markers (bouys) and especially deck rails in pink.

Pink-painted rails on a ship did not mean that the boys had been out to sea too long, it just meant that they didn't like falling overboard that much.

The highly-visible nature of pink has been appreciated in the west, as well as the east.

Later, after the development of petroleum-based oils, enamels became longer-lasting and the availability of pigments of various shades improved, too. By the Second World War, "international orange" had replaced pink as the most visible color for marine applications. By the late 1950's, chemistry gave us a completely new artificial color: fluorescent orange, which was even more visible than international orange but unfortunately, much less durable in the weather. Last of all came the day-glow artificial colors developed in the 60's and 70's. Day-glow pigments have great visibility ranges too, but like fluorescent orange, lack durability in the weather and fade quickly in ultra-violet light from the sun.

My boat was built in 1954, so it has a lot of dark wood stain, varnish and white paint, but no pink. I do have some international orange and day-glow colored floatation gear, though.

 

 

Thank you to Choku Dori and yzercyber for some historical information about colors and their uses.
Amazing the things you can learn on a forum desinged for Subaru's and their owners.

 

wow, this was an educational thread.
I knew the Sakura cherry blossoms were important in the japanese culture, but I didn't know the details of it.

*says hypa who painted his "pink" subaru decal silver, but left a touch of pink for the trim.

 

Excellent post. Subaru seems to really take care in their decisions when it comes to stuff like this. I really like that about them.

 

http://www.virtualginza.com/cherryblossom.htm

 

you beat me to it

now go off on a tangent of the dragon and the tiger, emporer and fuedel lords