Fukusa

[citation needed] Traditionally in Japan, gifts were placed in boxes or on a wooden or lacquered tray, over which a fukusa would be draped.

In the Edo period, textiles, which had long been an integral part of Japanese art, were developed further through the rising wealth of the merchant classes, whose disposable income allowed them to imitate the upper classes through the patronage of textile artists, dyers and embroiderers.

The subtle cultural references inherent in their designs would be recognizable only to the educated members of the upper classes, who lived and exchanged gifts in the cities of Kyoto and Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and their surrounding areas.

[citation needed] Today, fukusa are rarely used, and when they are it is almost exclusively around Tokyo and Kyoto for gifts given at the time of marriage.

[citation needed] Satin silk was the preferred fabric for embroidered fukusa, which often made extensive couched gold- and silver-wrapped thread.