Article: Anniversary Gifts by Year: Japanese China for the 20th, Glass for the 15th and Gold for the 50th
Anniversary Gifts by Year: Japanese China for the 20th, Glass for the 15th and Gold for the 50th
In America, each wedding anniversary has long had its own gift. Emily Post’s Etiquette, published in 1922 and a classic American guide to manners, lists them: paper for the first year, wood for the fifth, tin for the tenth, crystal for the fifteenth, china for the twentieth, silver for the twenty-fifth, gold for the fiftieth and diamond for the seventy-fifth. Many modern lists add a material for every year, but these are the classic milestones.
Three of them — china, crystal and gold — are materials that Japanese craftsmen have worked for centuries. This guide introduces pieces from Japan’s master kilns and craft workshops for the twentieth anniversary above all, and for the fifteenth and fiftieth as well.
Why porcelain is called “china”
When porcelain first reached Europe, it came from China, and in English the material simply took the name of the country. For centuries no one in Europe knew how to make it, and fine porcelain was treasured as a luxury.
Arita ware was the first porcelain ever produced in Japan, made in the town of Arita in Saga Prefecture from the early seventeenth century. By the late seventeenth century it had become a luxury so prized by the royal courts of Europe that it was called “white gold.” A piece of Arita ware is, in the truest sense, fine china — and a fitting gift for a twentieth anniversary.
The 20th anniversary: china to use every day
Seiten mug from Shinemon Kiln.
Twenty years of marriage is built on ordinary days, and a cup that a couple reaches for every morning is a quiet way to honor them.
Shinemon Kiln’s Seiten pieces are glazed in Ginga (“galaxy”), a deep blue scattered with stars that the master potter Shinemon created from yuteki tenmoku, the glaze that feudal lords such as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi treasured as a vessel for noble guests. The pair of teacups is finished at the rim in real gold and platinum, colors that express everlasting happiness, and is steady enough to use for tea or any other drink. The mug, with its rim of real gold, holds large ice cubes with ease. Jin Kiln’s teacup, a JTOPIA exclusive from the kiln that has had the honor of presenting its work to the Emperor and Empress, is painted entirely by hand with very fine brushwork on smooth white porcelain in the Kakiemon style; no two cups have quite the same design.
The 20th anniversary: china to display
Wisteria on a decorative plate from Fujii Kinsai Kiln.
For a milestone this large, some couples choose a piece to display — one that will hold the memory of the year for decades to come.
Shinemon Kiln’s large plate, about 26 cm across, glitters like a starry sky, with spots like obsidian and flowing white streaks like shooting stars; it is beautiful on the wall and generous enough for a main dish. The kiln’s Aoi Sora vase captures the blue sky after rain in Jun glaze, a legendary glaze of ancient China revived by Shinemon, with a faint mist of purple in the blue. It is thrown by hand on the wheel, and each one is unique. Fujii Kinsai Kiln’s decorative plate shows wisteria in full bloom against a rich indigo ground. Sei Shonagon, writing in The Pillow Book a thousand years ago, praised wisteria with long, deeply colored clusters, and in the Japanese language of flowers it means “welcome” and “intoxicated with love.” Every decorative plate is painted entirely by hand, and it comes in a paulownia box with the artist’s special inscription.
The 15th anniversary: crystal and glass
Gold and silver leaf on Kihaku glass, from Uchiki.
Emily Post noted that crystal, at fifteen years, is the first anniversary gift that is likely to be taken seriously. Today the crystal anniversary is often celebrated with fine glassware of every kind.
Uchiki’s Kihaku glass applies a leaf-laying technique from Yamanaka lacquerware to clear glass: skilled artisans scatter gold and silver leaf by hand, so that no two pieces share the same pattern. Uchiki’s work has been chosen as commemorative gifts for important government ceremonies in Japan. The rock cup “Yuragi” holds about 495 ml, and the sake set comes with a server and two cups — one for each of you.
![Yamanaka Lacquerware - [Kihaku Glass] Rock Cup “Yuragi” (Sway)](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0797/4227/1763/files/5546_01_1000.jpg)
The 50th anniversary: gold
A peony in gold from Fujii Kinsai Kiln.
Fifty years is the golden anniversary, which Emily Post called “a quite sacred event.” In Japan, too, gold is a color of celebration, and many of the finest pieces are decorated with real gold.
On Fujii Kinsai Kiln’s sake cup, a pale pink peony blooms beneath a glaze as clear as a gemstone, outlined in gold on a gold pattern. In China the peony is called the king of flowers and has been loved as a symbol of splendor since ancient times. Shinemon Kiln’s Youkou teacup shows brilliant sunlight rising out of a jet-black universe, with a rim of shining real gold. Shinemon received a special award at the Nitten, Japan’s largest art exhibition.
Write the date on the box
Fine Japanese craft is traditionally kept in a box of paulownia wood, which is light and protects its contents from moisture, and every piece in this guide comes in one. At JTOPIA, a calligrapher can write your names or the date of your wedding on the lid of the box as a paid service, so that the box itself remembers the day. Japanese gift wrapping, noshi, a paper bag and a handwritten message card are free of charge. For more ideas, see our guide to Japanese pair tableware.
