After watching one well known Japanese movie, I kept thinking about the colour that Japanese associate with the sun. In that movie the sun was associated with the white colour. Then, I spoke with some Japanese people and they said that it was red. Not surprising, considering the Japanese flag. Then, we take kanji, where 白い (shiroi, white) incorporates the kanji for 日 (hi, sun). This is because ancient Chinese associated rays of sun with white (ref. Helen Gilhooly, Beginners Japanese Script, p. 48). Now, considering that Japan is the country of the “Rising Sun”, and the sun is usually red in the evening (over in China), I am totally puzzled whether the sun is red or white from the point of view of Japanese culture, and why. If anyone has ideas, let me know

Konstantin