Oil paper umbrella

Oil-paper umbrella

Chinese name

油紙傘

油纸伞

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	yóuzhǐsǎn

Japanese name

Kanji

和傘

Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	wagasa

Oil-paper umbrella (Chinese: 油紙傘, pinyin: yóuzhǐsǎn, Mandarin pronunciation: [i̯ǒu̯ʈʂɨ̀sàn]) is a type of paper umbrella that originated from China. It subsequently spread across several East, South and Southeast Asian countries such as to Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Laos, where it has been further developed with different characteristics.

Other than the purpose of providing shade, oil-paper umbrellas are also traditional essential wedding items. In both traditional Chinese and Japanese weddings, the matron of honor would cover the bride with the oil-paper umbrella upon arrival to ward off evil spirits. Purple umbrellas are a symbol of longevity for the elders, while white umbrellas are used in funerals. Oil-paper umbrellas are also used as props in Japanese traditional dances and tea ceremonies.

In the early Hakka society, two umbrellas were usually given as dowry, due to the "paper" (纸) and "child" (子) homonym in the language (Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chṳ́), symbolizing a blessing for the woman to "give birth to a son soon", a propitiatory compliment to the newlyweds at the time. Also, as the character "umbrella" contains "four people", gifting the umbrellas represents a blessing for the couple to have many sons and grandsons. In addition, because of the "oil" and "have" homonym, and that the umbrellas open into a round shape, they symbolize a happy, complete life. It was also customary to give an umbrella to a 16-year-old young man at his rite of passage.

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