Chikyu Greetings - Uchiwa Fan Card - Fireworks Design

Chikyu Greetings - Uchiwa Fan Card - Fireworks Design

A Japanese greeting card shaped like an uchiwa, the traditional flat Japanese fan, published by Chikyu Greetings. Unlike the folding sensu, the uchiwa is rigid and made in a single piece, and for centuries it has been one of the objects that best embodies the Japanese summer: it appears at summer festivals, at food stalls, on fireworks nights and in the hands of anyone strolling in a yukata.

This uchiwa fan card takes that tradition and turns it into something you can send by post. Japan has a custom known as shochū mimai (暑中見舞い): a letter sent during the hottest weeks of the year — roughly from the end of the rainy season to the beginning of August — to ask after the recipient's health and wish them well through the heat. A fan-shaped card is, quite literally, sending a little coolness inside an envelope.

The fireworks design depicts the hanabi taikai of the Sumida River in Tokyo. Against a deep blue night sky the fireworks burst in white, gold, pink and violet, and beneath them stand the silhouette of the bridge and the lit-up buildings along the bank. The festival is generally traced back to 1733, when the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune had fireworks set off during the opening of the river season at Ryōgoku, as an offering for the victims of the previous year's famine and epidemic. With interruptions, the tradition continued until 1961, and in 1978 it was revived under its present name, the Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai. Today it draws close to a million people every late July.

The finish is carefully done: the edge of the fan is bound with a gold trim that gives it the look of a gift piece, and the reverse is left completely blank so you can write your message by hand. It comes with a standard envelope in very pale pink, matching the textured background of the card.

Card and envelope together weigh between 20 and 22 grams, within standard letter format, so it can be posted without difficulty. If you enclose anything else, check the weight first.

Ideal as a summer greeting, as a small extra to accompany a gift, or simply stood upright on a shelf as a small seasonal decoration.

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.