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12
Ceremonial coverlets from Japan
Hiroko McDermott discovers that Japanese embroidered fukusa textiles traditionally
used for covering gifts found many admirers in the West
Viewing the Japanese fabrics shown at the Paris World Fair in 1878, Philippe Burty wrote an
enthusiastic review of the Japanese exhibition: “The fukusas – fabric squares used to wrap a
lacquer box that contained a letter, frits, or presents sent to a friend by means of a servant – are
the most interesting of all. The boldness of the silhouettes, the beauty of the colour contrasts, are
unrivalled in any other people’s art. Our friends Edmond de Goncourt and G. de Nittis have
collected the finest specimens known in France and have had them framed like masterpieces of
painting .... Sometimes these pieces are entirely covered with embroidery, either flat or in a relief
calculated to catch and hold the light – as in the two pigeons in E. de Goncourt’s collection.
Sometimes they are partially painted with a brush with marvellous freedom and flow.”(l)
In present Japan, the fukusa is rarely seen, and even more rarely used except perhaps at a
tea ceremony. A piece of cloth 10 inches square or so in size, the tea-fukusa is tucked in between
a tea
Fig.1 Display of fukusa and nishijin silk at the 1873 Vienna World Fair
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master’s obi and kimono and half hung so as to be pulled out when needed, for instance, to dust a
tea scoop or a tea container.
The other type called kake-fukusa (cover-fokusa) has almost disappeared from use in Japanese
life. More than two decades ago, I was rather surprised to find such a fukusa, three-feet
square with an auspicious pattern, hanging on a wall in a Japanese museum. It was the first time I
had seen a kake-fukusa, which was labelled as a congratulatory gift cover.
This type of fukusa has been used in the West, I later learned, as a wall hanging, a bed cover,
or even as a framed picture, as P. Burty mentioned. While recently studying late 19 th century Japa-