Chikyu Greetings - Japanese Card - Traditional Fan

Chikyu Greetings - Japanese Card - Traditional Fan

A Japanese folded greeting card, published by Chikyu Greetings, built around the silhouette of an open folding fan. It is a classic device of Japanese illustration: instead of framing the scene in a rectangle, it is enclosed within the fan, and the object itself becomes the frame.

Inside the fan unfolds a landscape in sharp colour: Mount Fuji in deep blue with its snow-capped summit, a red sun set against the sky, branches of cherry blossom in pink and red, and bands of golden clouds and waves separating the planes. Around it, the background is covered with a weave of traditional Japanese motifs in pale tones — stylised flowers, waves, lattices — deliberately muted so that Fuji and the cherry blossom stand out unchallenged.

The folding fan — sensu (扇子) or ōgi (扇) — is a Japanese invention, unlike the flat uchiwa fan, which came from the continent. As well as a practical object, it is a symbol of good fortune: its shape widens towards the tip, which in Japanese is called suehirogari, "spreading out towards the end", and is read as prosperity that keeps growing. This is why it appears constantly in celebration décor, in formal gifts and in greeting prints.

The card is folded, opening like a book, and comes with an inner sheet printed with a message and a standard white 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 greeting 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.