Chikyu Greetings - Japanese Card - Mount Fuji

Chikyu Greetings - Japanese Card - Mount Fuji

A Japanese folded greeting card, published by Chikyu Greetings, showing Mount Fuji seen through a cherry tree in full bloom and crowned by a rising sun. All of it set against a gold background that recalls the old Japanese gold-leaf folding screens.

The composition is deliberately symmetrical: Fuji in deep blue with its snow-capped summit occupies the centre, the sakura branches enter from above and below to frame the scene, and the orange disc of the sun is set at the upper right. That sun is no ordinary sun: it is the hatsu-hinode (初日の出), the first sunrise of the year, watched in Japan at dawn on 1 January. It is one of the country's most deeply rooted customs — some travel to the coast or climb a mountain to see it — because that first light is believed to bring with it the deity who carries the fortune of the coming year.

Mount Fuji is not there by chance either. It is Japan's highest mountain (3,776 m) and has been a sacred place for centuries, and it also heads the saying ichi-Fuji, ni-taka, san-nasubi: to dream of Fuji on the first night of the year is the best omen there is, ahead of the hawk and the aubergine. Fuji, cherry blossom and the first sunrise together make this a card designed for New Year greetings.

The finish is worked with metallic foil stamping distributed across the illustration, making the background, the petals and the outline of the sun catch the light.

The card is folded, opening like a book, and comes with an inner sheet printed with a message and a standard envelope cut to size. The format is designed precisely for sending greetings abroad: the manufacturer itself recommends it for writing to people outside Japan.

Ideal as a New Year card, to accompany a gift, or to frame and keep as a small decorative print once it has been read.

About Chikyu Greetings. Chikyu Greetings, based in Asakusabashi (Tokyo), is a Japanese stationery publisher whose "Chikyu" brand goes back to the Meiji era, around 130 years ago. It specialises in greeting cards and paper goods — envelopes, letter paper, pochibukuro, stickers and Japanese-style bookmarks — with a style the company itself describes as basic, warm designs with a touch of whimsy.