Satin silk with embroidered decoration of two lobstersBritish Galleries:
In the late Victorian period it was very fashionable to decorate the home with Japanese objects. Textiles such as this, which would have been used in Japan to cover a gift, were particularly popular. The striking lobster design would have seemed very exotic to the British public. []Embroidered textile to cover a gift, known as a fukusa , with decoration of two lobsters, Japan, 1825-1875This textile cover is called a ‘fukusa’. Traditionally in Japan, gifts were placed in a box on a tray, over which a fukusa was draped. The choice of a fukusa appropriate to the occasion was an important part of the gift-giving ritual. The richness of the decoration was an indication of the donor’s wealth, and the quality of the design evidence of his or her taste and sensibility. These two lobsters represent Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, the two gods enshrined at Ise, Japan's most important Shintô shrine.