Ao

Ao (hiragana あお; kanji 青; adjective form aoi (青い)) is a Japanese color word that includes what English-speakers would call blue and green. For example, in Japan, green traffic lights are described as ao shingō (青信号), and blue skies are described as aozora (青空), as in aozora bunko. Modern Japanese has a separate word for green (ja:緑 midori), although its boundaries are not the same as in English. Ancient Japanese did not have this distinction: the word midori only came into use in the Heian period, and at that time (and for a long time thereafter) midori was still considered a shade of ao. Educational materials distinguishing green and blue only came into use after World War II, during the Occupation: thus, even though most Japanese...