When Japanese people give a present to someone they used to say "This is just a sign (しるし, shirushi) for appreciation)". "for appreciation" is often omitted.. しるし(shi-ru-shi) can be replaced by きもち(気持ち, kimochi; mind, not feeling in this case). But these expressions have been less and less used as modern Japanese people think this expression not straightforward to express thanks, which may have been mostly influenced by the American gift-giving culture. The actual gift is a material so they tried to avoid to refer to material things, which meant mean for them.
Apart from the above gift-giving cultural custom, let's think about the above native Japanese word しるし (shirushi). which is used also against material things. きもち(気持ち, kimochi, "mind") is against material things too. There is another word かたち(katachi) - form, which is used also against material things but used in some other expressions.
しるし (shirushi) also means "mark" besides "sign". The verb form is しるす (shiru-su) is "to mark". The related word しらせ(shirase) means "news" or "notice" - besides "form" it. Its verb form しらせる(shirase-ru) means "to make something known". しらす(shira-su) is also used but less common now.
かたち(katachi) means "figure", "shape" besides "form". The word may have derived from かた (kata), which also means "form" or "mold(mould). かたい (kata-i) is an adjective form meaning "hard". かたち(katachi) and かた(kata) generally refer to a solid form, figure, shape. The verb form of かたい (kata-i) is かためる (kata-meru) meaning "to solidify". There seems no simple verb form of かたち(katachi) (to form, to shape) we use かたちづくる(katachi-zukuru), literally "form - make".
sptt
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