also: べんがら
Red iron oxide has been used as a pigment for traditional Japanese buildings.
The red color of this pottery comes from red ocher.
Standard kanji spelling for this pigment name.
Katakana spelling, reflecting the foreign origin (Bengal) and common in technical or commercial contexts.
From 紅 (べに, 'crimson') + 殻 (がら, 'husk' or 'shell'), but the reading べにがら is a phonetic adaptation of 'Bengal', the region from which the pigment was originally imported.