giving a gift (humble)
Humble expression used when the speaker gives a small gift, often accompanied by a phrase like 手札代わりですが or 手札代わりに. Rare in modern conversation; more common in formal or written contexts.
This is just a small token of my appreciation; please accept it.
Standard kanji spelling for this humble expression.
Variant spelling using 代り instead of 代わり; less common but acceptable.
Compound of 手札 (てふだ, 'handbill' or 'card') and 代わり (かわり, 'substitute'). Literally 'in place of a card', it came to mean a small gift given as a token of appreciation or greeting.