The water-swellable clay mineral laminated powder of the present invention is characterized in that a layer of ionic molecule having two or more ionic functional group is laminated on the surface of a base powder particle, and a layer of water-swellable clay mineral is laminated thereon, and the layers are sequentially laminated so that the surface charge or the ionic charge of each layer is alternately positive and negative. The water-swellable clay mineral laminated powder of the present invention can impart new functionalities to the base powder easily, as a result of that the water-swellable clay mineral is stably laminated on the surface of the base powder. And the dye/water-swellable clay mineral complex of the present invention is characterized in that polybase and/or nonionic hydrophilic polymer and dye are complexed to water-swellable clay mineral. The dye/water-swellable clay mineral complex of the present invention is excellent for various resistance characteristics of the dye such as dissolution resistance, lightfastness, and chlorine resistance. In addition, the dye/water-swellable clay mineral complex is very useful as a water-type coloring agent since it has excellent coloring abilities, clearness, and dye fastness in water.