Gift cover (fukusa) with character for longevity and literary motifs

In traditional Japanese culture, gifts were presented for various holidays throughout the year as well as for weddings, funerals, or other special events. The wrappers for these gifts were usually made of silk and would be returned to the giver upon receipt. The most formal gifts would be covered not with the more familiar soft wrapping cloths (furoshiki) still used today but with a more elaborate gift cover called a fukusa. Fukusa fell out of use in the twentieth century, after being used for hundreds of years as hallmarks of high-level, important gifts.

Very often the design on a fukusa tells us the specific occasion upon which it would have been used. This example has a large Chinese character that means "longevity," filled with delicate scenes of nature and figures in aristocratic dress, recalling the world of classical literature.

When would this fukusa have been used? The auspicious character "longevity," shown here, is today often associated with weddings; but this gift wrapper was instead probably made for a celebration of old age. Since old age was thought to start at age 42, and an average lifespan was 50, these occasions—at age 60, 70, 77, 80, 88, or 99—were significant life milestones.