Wrapping Cloth (fukusa) with Design of Sake Cups

This wrapping cloth (fukusa) features three shallow cups embroidered on crimson silk satin. Each is outlined in gold, and its interior decorated with symbols of longevity: three cranes, a tortoise, two elderly figures in a landscape with pine and bamboo, and a scholar-official admiring blossoming prunus with two young attendants. These motifs are embroidered with colored silk threads, while the background is decorated with couched gold thread.

During the Edo period, it was customary to present gifts on special occasions. They were covered or wrapped with a rectangular fukusa, which was later returned to the giver. The cups on this cloth, known as sakazuki, are for drinking Japanese rice wine, or sake. Sakazuki coated with red lacquer and those decorated with sprinkled gold and silver powder (maki-e), were made for feudal lords (daimyō) and the samurai classes.