when skulls determine the form of the name of a color...

"according to one of the most prominent experts of kanji ideagrams - shirakawa shizuka (1910 - 2006) the chinese characters for 'white' was modeled after the shape of the human skull... supposedly because the image of white held by people back then was based on the sight of abandoned skulls in the fields, bleached by wind, rain, and sunlight."

from: white, by kenya hara