I thought I might post about a little
something traditional today as I don't think I've done that for a long time now.
These pretty things you see here are called Goshugi-bukuro, which literally means "celebration money sleeves". It's very common in Japan to give money as gift at weddings, and Goshugi-bukuro is always used for this occasion with the sender's name written on the skinny white paper you see on each Goshugi-bukuro. (Yes we write our names from top to bottom, vertically.) Each one has a plane envelope to slip money in inside and the envelope is wrapped with a big piece of good washi paper folded in its special way.
Goshugi-bukuro are sold everywhere in Japan even at the 100yen shops or convenience sotres, but I like to choose nicer ones and these 3 are my recent favourites. I bought the one with pretty gold cranes printed on really beautiful washi paper (the one on the left seen in the first photo) a while ago at ITO-YA, it was the loveliest Goshugi-bukuro I had ever seen!
But when I became the one to receive Goshugi-bukuro, I realised what a huge waste all these things become! They say you can not re-use them for when you go to someone's wedding and not just all the papers but all the beautiful "
mizuhiki" (the special decorative cord to tie around the envelopes) are only to be thrown away afterwords and that made me feel sad! We only had a very small wedding but still there were many Goshugi-bukuro to be wasted. Well I haven't thrown them away, trying to think of the ways to use them for something.
Anyway, we received one Goshugi-bukuro which used handkerchief instead of paper and I was so happy to see it! I think it's such a wonderful idea, the handkerchief can be used over and over afterward! So, for my friend's wedding I went last weekend I used a recyclable cloth Goshugi-bukuro, I actually found the one that is like a pocket sleeve so I bought that too. They cost a lot more than the average paper ones but I still think they are better. I have 2 more weddings to go to this month so I'm all set for now!
