Midsummer Greetings

Handmade post cards: wood veneer, ink painting, calligraphy, and paper [moon].

These were found in Los Angeles in the late 1980s, in a Little Tokyo gift shop run by two elderly women. There was a good bit of stock that appeared to be from the late '50s and early '60s, and I suspect these cards are about that old.

The cards mark ochūgen (お中元), which is secondary to New Year as a time of gift-giving and sending post cards with best wishes.

In Japan in the mid-80s, I bought quite a few ochūgen cards of summer flowers, dragonflies, and other seasonal themes, which were mass-produced and available at any stationery shop. At a folk art shop I also found a number of designs stenciled on handmade card, with the maker's name and a "post card" ID stamped on the reverse.

The cards above are unusual in being blank on the reverse, without even the craft person's name. They don't seem likely to have come from Japan; perhaps they were hobby work by a local person.