Japanese Textiles: History, Modern Adaptations & Use for the Holidays

Japanese Textiles: History, Modern Adaptations & Use for the Holidays 
Sachie Uchimaru

Tenugui History 
Tenugui are traditional Japanese cotton towels that have been a part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years. They dry quickly, come in an array of designs, and are highly versatile. 
During the Sengoku (Warring States) Period, tenuguis were used by samurai to absorb sweat underneath their heavy kabutos (head armor) or to wrap their sharp katanas. They then quickly spread to become fashion pieces as head wraps, and Kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers began making original designs to hand out in lieu of business cards. 
In modern times people use them as eco-conscious gift wrap, interior decoration, wrapping for lunch boxes, or even covering for tissue boxes and wine bottles. 
At Bernal Cutlery we have been honored to work with a tenugui company established in 1949 that uses Chusen Dying, a traditional stencil hand-dyeing technique. Named “Chusen” as each color is individually poured onto the fabric with a tool that resembles a watering can for gardening- chu means “to pour”, and sen means “dye”. 

While the city of Sakai may be famous internationally for its traditional knifemaking, it has also been the center of Chusen tenugui making for centuries. It is when we were in Sakai to meet with blacksmiths that we came across the Chusen tenugui, and decided we must also share this special craft of the city we have come to adore so much. 
The Process of Chusen Dying 
In the Chusen method, each step of the process is handled by someone specializing in one skill. 

The first step is applying a thin, even layer of glue onto each fabric using a pattern cut-out and a special paddle. The dyes will not seep into the parts that have the glue. When we visited the Chusen workshop we noticed a strong smell of the ocean, it turns out that the glue is actually made out of seaweed! 
After glue is applied to each piece of fabric, the craftsperson carefully lays it over the last layer so that there is not a centimeter of misalignment. They make stacks of 50 tenuguis at a time using this method. As this gluing process is extremely difficult and precision is key, it takes at least 5 years for someone to become proficient in this technique. The next step is the dying, which the craftsperson does by pouring each color with a tool called a yakan (kettle), and then pressing a foot pedal underneath the dye table which pulls the liquid through the layers of cloth. They create moats throughout the design with glue, one for a different color, so that they do not bleed into one another. An experienced craftsperson usually can dye between 600-700 tenugui a day.  The next portion is done by a person specializing in washing the fabric, to remove the glue and excess dye. Historically this process was done in the river. In the heyday of tenugui making during the Taisho and Showa periods, there were 57 different tenugui companies along the Ishizu River that flows through Sakai. Now, sadly only 13 remain. 

Drawing of textile companies bringing large vats of cloth to wash the fabric and dry them along the riverbed– From the Sakai Public Library Archives

Map showing the numerous textile factories that used to exist along Sakai’s major river, as they used the river to wash the fabrics– From the Sakai Public Library Archives

The final step is drying, which only takes 30 minutes now with industrial strength fans. Historically craftspeople brought the bundles of fabric to the local mountain to lay out and dry.  When there was a long period of rain, companies had to temporarily close their production line as they could not dry their tenuguis. 

When the sun came back out after these long rains, companies would literally be fighting for space on the mountain to dry their fabrics. The tenugui workers with whom we visited joked that back then, sometimes customers would find bugs in their tenuguis from being laid out in the grass on the mountainside. 

Furoshiki 

Furoshiki is another Japanese textile that has been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. While tenuguis are long and thin, furoshikis are square and made from thicker fabric. Tenuguis were originally made to act as a quick-drying towel, whereas the main purpose of furoshikis was to wrap and transport objects. 
The name is said to come from samurais (and then later everyday people) using furoshiki to wrap their clothes when they disrobed for public baths, as "furo" means bath in Japanese. Everyone had a furoshiki with their family crest, so they could differentiate their clothes from others’. 
In recent years furoshiki have become increasingly popular due to its ability to act as environmentally conscious gift-wrapping. Instead of buying rolls of beautiful gift wrapping only to watch it be ripped and then thrown away, using a furoshiki to wrap a gift which the receiver can then use to wrap another gift is a gift in itself. 
This method is called “ma-musubi”- treasured for the knot’s strength and ability to not easily unravel. Ma-musubi is therefore seen as an auspicious knot and used to give gifts as it symbolizes the strength of the relationship between the gift giver and the receiver.