rawr! godzilla give-away

This Godzilla-shaped uchiwa ( flat fan) was being passed out on the streets of Sapporo to promote the recently-released American film, Godzilla. The film was released in Japan only two days ago, so I haven't seen it yet for myself, but I've heard lots of positive feedback from American fans of the original Godzilla series. 

I am offering this Godzilla uchiwa to one reader of my blog as a set with the accompanying Godzilla-inspired etegami carved from corrugated cardboard. 

If you are a Godzilla fan, don't miss this chance to win the drawing. Leave a comment below, preferably one that describes your interest in Godzilla. Drawing results will be posted in 7 days. I will need to be able to contact the winner for a shipping address, so if you enter the drawing, make sure and check back here. Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments and crude comments will not be posted.

UPDATE: Go to this post to find out who won the drawing!

more etegami uchiwa (handheld flat fans)

more etegami uchiwa (bamboo flat fans)

I'm almost ready for summer! (ps: I fixed the misspelling on the clover fan after I took this photo. embarrassed.)

hand-painted mini-fans

Though Etegami is-- in principle-- a form of mail art, the most common form being a postcard, there are other forms an Etegami can take without compromising the mailart factor. One of these forms is a miniature version of the hand-held flat fans (uchiwa) that I introduced in this post. The mini-fans are small enough, and flat enough, to slip into an envelope and send through the post. They're especially cool (pun intended) as shochuu-mimai greeting cards in mid-summer. Summer is a long way off for most of us, but you might want to try this as a Christmas gift idea this winter. There are more samples in my Etsy shop ♥

humanizing the quake (chiba)

Southeast of Tokyo is Chiba prefecture, which takes up the whole of the Boso Peninsula. It is known for having fine weather year-round, and this is one reason why bamboo grows well there, and in so many varieties. Bamboo has many practical and ornamental uses, one of which is as the framework of uchiwa (round, flat, hand-held fans).

Some of the best uchiwa in Japan are said to be made in the Tateyama region, near the southernmost tip of the peninsula. They are made by cutting bamboo tubes into narrow splinters which are then splayed out in the radial shape of a fan. Washi paper is pasted over both sides of this bamboo frame.

I prefer uchiwa to the sensu (folding fan) that Western tourists often purchase as souvenirs of their Japan travels. I find that the flat fan produces a heftier breeze than the folding fan, while causing less of a strain on the wrist. Their usefulness extends throughout the year, regardless of season. We flap them over hot sushi rice to bring out the gleam of the individual grains. We use them to help get wood fires burning and charcoals glowing. I even have some small blank ones to use for painting on, etegami-style, and sending through the mail as greeting cards.

They can be used for cheering at sports and music events, as trays for serving dainty confections to go with tea, or as mats on which to place an arrangement of flowers. These days, cheap plastic-framed uchiwa, printed with corporate advertising, promotion of a cause, or announcement of a public event, are passed out at busy pedestrian crossings with the sure knowledge that few will refuse them, because everyone knows how handy uchiwa are.

(This is where I deleted a paragraph about how if the people of Japan ever needed to exercise this quality of versatility, it is now. I hoped you would make the connection on your own.)

The attached image was painted across two washi postcards. The poem quoted on the etegami is from the Kokin Wakashu, a Heian era anthology of waka poetry (905 AD). I believe the poem refers to the birth of the poet's child, and is written in tenderness and hope, rather than in despair.

etegami fan sets

In late spring, I had a chance to visit the largest stationery supply store in our city. The etegami supplies are sold on the top floor of the building, so I went straight up, barely sparing a glance at the other four floors full of art and office supplies that tempted me at each break in the escalator ride. Naturally, the etegami displays were on the theme of summer. The shochuu mimai greeting cards, that I blogged about in my previous post, were prominently displayed-- as were the tools and card stock for making your own. I also found sets of uchiwa (flat fans) and sensu (folding fans) fitted with blank washi paper for painting your own designs. The miniature flat fan sets, called mame-uchiwa, come with an envelope, so they can be sent through the postal system, and tiny stands so the recipient can display them once they arrive. I prefer the larger, normal-sized fans, because I actually use them to cool myself off, though you can buy tasteful racks to display these as well.

For the two flat fans pictured here, I tore off the worn paper from the plastic frames of two old uchiwa and replaced them with my own drawings. For the one on the left I inked cross-sections of okra and stamped them on the paper randomly in an attempt to represent the Milky Way. This was to commemorate the Tanabata Festival on July 7, a festival associated with the once-a-year meeting of the stars Vega and Altair. The one on the right is a representation of a fresh persimmon, which is a late fall/early winter fruit, and not a suitable motif for a hot-weather item-- It was a dumb choice, but I do so love persimmons! Because I was planning to make bunches of these fans to give away to people, I chose to enlarge and paste photo copies of my original drawings onto the frames. This is cheating. Use the original etegami drawing if possible.

See this post on the KimonoBox blog for more on the tradition of making uchiwa.