fukusa (ceremonial gift-wrapping cloth)

fukusa (ceremonial gift-wrapping cloth) , late 1700s or early 1800s, Edo period (1600–1868)

Where object was made: Japan

Material/technique: stem stitch; crepe; gold thread; embroidering; satin stitch; satin; silk; couching

Credit line: Gift in memory of James H. Walker Jr., by his family

Accession number: 1993.0353

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
Fukusa are padded and lined silk cloths used as coverings for formal gifts. Most are elaborately decorated with subjects symbolically appropriate for a particular significant event, such as a wedding, or with a motif such as a family crest that could be used for any occasion.
This fukusa depicts a shell-matching game that originated in the late twelfth century. The interior sections of both halves of a clamshell were covered with gold leaf and then painted with miniature scenes from popular fiction, often taken from the early-eleventh-century courtly romance, the Tale of Genji.