I would love to know what the characters on this fabric say. Can anyone help with this? Thank you!

These are actually Chinese characters (the basis of Japanese characters) with the meanings of Luck (Fu), Longevity (Shou), Happiness (Xi), and Prosperity(Lu). The character for luck is part of many Japanese names and is pronounced "Fuku" in Japanese.

I love that fabric.

I have a friend who majored in Japanese and spent a year or two as an exchange student in Japan. I showed her this link, and this is what she said: "They aren't Japanese, they're Chinese. There are only three characters on this fabric, just all facing different directions. "喜" is one of them, which means happiness. "福"is another one, which means good fortune/luck. The last one I know I should know, but it's escaping me at the moment. If I think of it, I'll let you know."

Ok, now it actually makes sense to me that these are Chinese characters, not Japanese! (How little I know...)

I'm glad they all are "good" characters, because I just ordered this fabric and would have really been embarrassed if the characters had spelled out something along the lines of "I'm with stupid". :shock:

So thank you! This is actually a companion print to a new fabric that Timeless Treasures is coming out with that has some sayings of Confucius on it.

What an educational thread .... love the fabric and the characters....have fun with it.

cool fabfic.

My friend got back to me with some more information about this: "Oh, the last one, "禄" means good fortune/prosperity. "福" is more luck than fortune."

Doesn't look Japanese to me...sorry