ABSTRACT
The usual characters for writing kugicha may be replaced on the gift by characters which can have the same reading, but which have a meaning appropriate to the celebration, namely ‘tea of long-lasting joy’
. This practice of substituting loan characters (ateji) with the appropriate sound values, which can also be read semantically with a suitable meaning, is used frequently by the people who make decorations for the gifts given before a wedding. More examples will be given in the section below on ‘The Trousseau’, where the greater bulk of betrothal gifts are to be described.
