FUTABA - Rokkaku Card Kirakira Japan - Lucky Charms

FUTABA - Rokkaku Card Kirakira Japan - Lucky Charms

A hexagonal Japanese card from the ROKKAKU brand (Futaba), featuring Japanese lucky charms, stamped in 2 foils.

The Kirakira Japan series ("sparkling Japan") gathers the most recognisable sides of Japanese culture in six designs, intended by the maker as a souvenir of Japan or a gift for someone from abroad. The foils are embossed, giving the drawings texture and depth. This design brings together engimono, the objects and symbols considered auspicious in Japan: Mount Fuji, the daruma and the maneki-neko, the beckoning cat that invites good fortune. It uses two foils: metallic red and metallic light blue. Given the theme, it suits wishing someone luck for an exam, a trip or a new project.

This is a ROKKAKU CARD, the brand's signature card: rokkaku means "hexagon", and both the card and the envelope have that shape. Once the message is written, the hexagonal envelope folds around the card and frames it. It is ideal to go with a gift, and also to stand on a shelf as a small display piece.

The finish is hakuoshi (箔押し), hot foil stamping: the foil is fixed to the paper with heat and pressure, and the craftsman adjusts temperature, pressure and time so that even the finest lines stay sharp. With several foils, the design changes its shine with the angle of the light.

About ROKKAKU. ROKKAKU was born on Rokkaku Street in Kyoto: it goes back to Sakurai Shōten, a shop founded in 1911, which gave rise in 1950 to a card company that took up foil stamping in 1955. Since 2021 the brand has belonged to Futaba, a Nagoya company founded in 1972 and well known in Japan for its New Year cards (nengajō).