A mid-summer night’s greeting…card
Posted: July 15, 2009 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Japan | 4 Comments »July 15th marks a time in Japan called ochūgen (お中元), which was a kind of mid-summer’s festival and a time for gift-giving, especially to one’s superiors, mentors and anyone who helped you out. According to my cultural guidebook, the name of the festival comes from the classic Chinese calendar which originally had three festivities to divide the year, or three sources (三元). January 15th would have been jōgen (上元), July 15th ochūgen as mentioned above, and October 15th kagen (下元). However, only ochugen was ever really observed in Japan.
Anyways, it’s very common at this time for people to send gifts to teachers they liked, bosses, family friends or even family. The idea, according to the book, is to show gratitude to those whom you feel indebted to for their kindness. Normally the gifts are given between July 1st and 15th, but if after that, it becomes a shochū omimai (暑中お見舞い) or “mid-summer’s greeting” until August 7th. After that, it is a zansho omimai (残暑お見舞い) or “end of summer greeting”. If you get the dates wrong or the greeting wrong, your gift, while appreciated, might confuse the recipient a bit, so make sure to get that sorted out if you plan on giving ochugen gifts. By September, it’s already too late.1
Also according to the guidebook, a survey a while back revealed that about 55% of Japanese adults plan on sending gifts for ochugen. I asked my wife about it and she said no.2 As for price, another survey mentioned in the book said people spend about ¥4,200 per gift on average, or about ¥16,600 over all. That’s about $40-45, or €35-40 per gift.
So if you live in Japan, or visit often, it’s a nice opportunity to keep in touch with someone and show you care. 
1 But oseibo (お歳暮) at the end of the year is another good opportunity.
2 Actually she told me she’s never sent a gift. She didn’t seem overly worried about it either. Don’t worry, she’s a very good-hearted person and gives lots of gifts in general. She’s also a bodhisattva too. 
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
Yeah, it’s usual to skip Ochugen or Oseibo if you are in your wife’s generation. I don’t send it to my own relatives or bosses or co-workers of my husband, too. Maybe, my husband works with foreigners and he doesn’t need to care so much about Japanese traditional customs.
However, the people in my parents generation (around 60 )or more older seem to emphasize these customs.
I don’t care to send gifts as it’s a seasonal ritual, but I love to send message cards in summer and new year.
Hm, that’s very interesting. My “guidebook” gave me the impression that everyone in Japan does this, so I was surprised when my wife said she didn’t. I like the idea of sending cards at least, because you’re saying “hello” to people and showing that you are thinking about them, but the gifts do seem kind of unnecessary.
On the other hand, it is nice to receive a gift, so if I was in Japan, I guess I might send to a few people, but not too many. I don’t want to go broke being generous.
It’s interesting to see the ochugen displays in supermarkets and department stores. I never would have thought that laundry detergent was a suitable gift, but it seems so in Japan. (and also, somewhat strangely I thought, a suitable return gift after receiving gift money at a funeral).
I preferred the look of the somen, or the gift packs of iced coffee.
The fruit baskets are amazing. Huge apples, and perfect melons.
I like the idea of present giving, omiyage, gifts to teachers at term end, etc but am uncomfortable with the web of complex obligations, it’s like Christmas cubed.
“Christmas cubed”…that’s hilarious! I know all about that complex web of obligations. Everytime we go back to Japan, it’s a hassle to get お土産 for every relative, family friend, and temple family we know. My wife is pretty efficient at it, but we usually end up filling one suitcase with stuff from Seattle or Ireland to bring back. Then there’s all the birthday’s and such.
It’s not all bad though. I think why the system has persisted so long is that people get lots of gifts too. That’s a nice thing.