Laughter Brings Good Fortune 笑門来福
shōmon raifuku4 characters38 strokes
笑門来福 (shōmon raifuku) means good fortune comes to a home full of laughter, a cheerful wish for happiness often written at New Year.
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Meaning 意味
What 笑門来福 means
A Japanese four-character idiom, yojijukugo, read shōmon raifuku.
LiterallyLaughing gate, coming fortune.
笑門来福 means that happiness naturally comes to a home where laughter never stops. Here 門, "gate," stands for the house and the family inside it.
Where it comes from. It is a four-kanji form of the proverb 笑う門には福来る (warau kado ni wa fuku kitaru), "fortune comes to the gate where people laugh."
“We wrote shōmon raifuku on our New Year cards, hoping for a year full of laughter.”
When people write it in Japan. It is a cheerful choice for kakizome, the first calligraphy of the New Year, and for bright pieces about family, smiles and happiness.
Japanese children know every kanji here by 4th grade.
How to write it 書き方
Brush tips for 笑門来福
Three things to watch
- In 笑, spread the 9th stroke, a sweep to the left, and the 10th stroke, a sweep to the right, wide so they support the character.
- Write the left and right halves of 門 in the same shape. The 6th stroke brings the right side all the way down and flicks to the upper left.
- In 来, run the 5th stroke, the vertical, straight down through the center of the character.
Stroke order
Follow the vermilion stroke, frame by frame.
Stroke order data: KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0.
How to practice 練習
Trace first, then copy
- PrintPrint both pages at actual size, on US Letter or A4. Page 1 is the model. Page 2 is the tracing sheet.
- TraceTrace the outlines with a brush pen. Or lay thin hanshi paper over the page and trace with brush and ink.
- CopySet the model beside your paper and copy it stroke by stroke. Look at the model more than at your own paper.
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