From Munsell color system to a new color psychology system

Shigenobu Kobayashi, the founder of Nippon Color and Design Research Institute Inc., developed a Hue and Tone System based on the Munsell Color System, referring to the ISCC-NBS method of designating color and a dictionary of color names during the process. A particularly noteworthy feature of this system is its tone settings, which successfully represent the entire world of color in just 130 colors. Kobayashi used these 130 systematically and psychologically representative colors as research samples in various studies using methods such as the semantic differential technique, and developed a Color Image Scale that clearly demonstrated the semantic space of colors. The present article will describe the development and impact of the Hue and Tone System and Color Image Scale since Kobayashi's article The Aim and Method of the Color Image Scale was published in Color Research and Application in 1981.