FUTABA - Japanese Landmarks Postcard - Kaminarimon

FUTABA - Japanese Landmarks Postcard - Kaminarimon

A Japanese postcard from the Nihon Meisho series (famous places of Japan) by ROKKAKU (Futaba): a collection in which each view is drawn with foil stamping alone. This one shows the Kaminarimon in Asakusa.

The Kaminarimon, the "Thunder Gate" of Asakusa (Tokyo), is one of the city's most popular sights. The fine texture of the foil brings out the statues of Fūjin and Raijin, gods of wind and thunder, on either side of the gate, and the shading of the willows. It is a landscape-format postcard.

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. The design changes its shine with the angle of the light.

It is Japanese postcard size (148 × 100 mm), made of glossy cast-coated card. It can be posted like any postcard or framed as a small print.

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).