Noriko's WebSite

Christmas Card

Rainy

Today we purchased several Christmas Cards at Ito-ya in Ginza for sending them to our friends/acquaintances in abroad.

(Chrismas Cards which can be used for calendar in 2004 with "monkey")

Some of their motive is "monkey" which is the 12 zodiac signs in Chinese astrology(The year of 2004 is the Year of Monkey in Chinese). Moreover, the cards can be used as calendar. (see above)

Incidentally, one of the cards is designed "Kabuki Juhachiban, Yanone".
"Yanone" is considered as a lucky play and often performed on the New Year program.

（"Yanone" Christmas Cards & "Sushi" Post Cards）

I am not used to select such a "typical-Japanese" card for my foreign friends as I consider that people has each individual taste. Not all of the foreigners love Japanese culture. On the other hand, my husband would like to choose it definitely due to the meaning of "nirami" in the "mie".

In Kabuki, the "mie" is the culmination of intensely passionate emotion. The actor crosses his eyes for several seconds in a frozen dynamic pose during "nirami".

In Ichikawa family, one of the head family in Kabuki world, it is a tradition to do the "nirami", when they have a "Kojo". There was a belief: at the New Year Play, when someone in the audience was glared at by Danjyuro, he was protected to have a cold in the year. "Nirami" by Danjyuro is different from other actors. It is believed as safe from a cold for the coming of the year, still now on and the audience would like to see it for luck.

Because of my husband's will, I accepted to purchase the Kabuki cards:-p
In addition to it, he also selected "Sushi" post card(^^). We intend to give a message as " we hope you to deepen your understanding for Japanese culture."