This cheery merchant is briskly selling his battledores - rackets used for the New Year game Hanetsuki - at the Hagoita Ichi fair, but for those of us somewhat distant from Japan's shores, battledores can be purchased online by import dealers. As one kindly explains:
This kind of decorative battledore is used for home or shop decor. Man's face is used as bringer of good luck for business, and a lady's face as a festive decoration. A big battledore fair is held in [the] Asakusa [district of] Tokyo before the New Year. These battledores are [made] to look 3-dimensional on the Paulownia wood base by using polystyrene foam covered by real kimono fabric.
If you're close to both a Japanese enthusiast and sixty dollars*, the battledore looks like the perfect gift for sport and show.
Battledores galore, citron bathing in the wintertime, skiing champs, Sony robots shamelessly authorizing unseen field goals and more in this week's knowing, ear-to-ear grin at one of the most exciting Pacific cultures around.
(*Or cheaper somewhere else, and I've no idea as to the vendors' credentials.)