Fukubukuro: There Is Good Fortune in What Remains

The start of a new year is often framed around what’s next—but in many cultures, it’s also a time to reflect on what we carry forward.

Fukubukuro is a Japanese New Year tradition rooted in the idea that there is good fortune in what remains. Rather than entering the new year with unnecessary baggage, this tradition allows pieces from the past to find new life—moving forward lighter, with intention and care. The word fukubukuro translates to “lucky bag,” a tradition where thoughtfully gathered items are shared as a surprise to welcome the year ahead.

What to Expect Inside a Fukubukuro

Kākou Collective fukubukuro are offered in tiered lucky bags, with values starting at $30 and going all the way up to $300. Each tier is curated separately and reflects a very different mix of items, scale, and overall experience.

While each tier is vastly different from the others, bags within the same tier are assembled with similar types of items and equivalent total value, offered at at least half of the regular retail price. This allows for consistency within each tier while still keeping the element of surprise.

Inside, you may find a mix of stationery, art prints, studio-made goods, apparel, and special vault pieces pulled from past collections and retired releases—items no longer available anywhere else. Every bag is generously filled and built with care, balance, and intention.

Each tier is available in very limited quantities, and once a tier sells out, it will not be restocked.

Contents vary. Value guaranteed by tier. All fukubukuro are final sale, with no exchanges or substitutions. Available while supplies last.

What Fukubukuro Means to Kākou Collective

For us at Kākou Collective, fukubukuro is a way to open our vault.

With every release we create, we purposefully set aside a small number of each item—not as leftovers, but as pieces meant to be shared again in the future. These items are saved specifically for fukubukuro, allowing work from different years and chapters to come together in one place.

Each year, we only pull from a portion of the vault. This lets pieces from different seasons of our work meet each other—art made during moments of expansion alongside work created during quieter periods of learning, slowing down, and becoming.

Together, they reflect not just what we make, but how we’ve grown.

Holding Pieces From Different Chapters

Each fukubukuro lucky bag includes past collections, retired favorites, and work created during different chapters of our lives as artists, business owners, and a growing ʻohana.

Some pieces come from seasons when everything felt fast and full. Others were made during moments of transition, reflection, or recalibration. All of them carry the time, effort, and care that went into creating them.

When you open a lucky bag, you’re not just unwrapping products—you’re holding a small part of our story. And now, that story gets to live with you.

Stepping Into a New Year Together

As we step into a new year, we wish you a happy and healthy year ahead. Mahalo for choosing to support Native Hawaiian wahine-owned businesses like ours, and for being part of the community that allows this work—and these stories—to keep moving forward.

Where to Shop Fukubukuro

Fukubukuro is available once a year, both online and in person, while supplies last.

• Online drop:
  Annually on December 31 at 10:00 AM HST
  Available at kakoucollective.com

• In-person drop:
  Available on January 1, during regular shop hours (10:00 AM – 4:00 PM) at:

  Kākou Collective Headquarters
  98-027 Hekaha Street, Building 3, Unit 27
  Aiea, HI 96701
  Find us across from Missing Polynesia and Fabric Mart.

Quantities are extremely limited, with a set number of bags available per tier. Once a tier sells out, it will not be restocked until the following year.