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| Furoshiki- all-round square fabric |
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Furoshiki is square-shaped cloth, which are used for gift wrapping and package carrying.
Furoshiki has been used already in Nara Era (710-794) and Shousouin (which keeps ca. 9,000 valuable treasures,
which part have sent from Greece, Persia, India, China via Silk road) of Toudai-temple (where the Great Buddha-statue belongs to)
keeps also furoshiki-shaped old cloth, which wrapped costumes of gagaku (Japanese traditional music).
In Heian Era (794- ca.1185) furoshiki was called as koromo-zutsumi or hira-zutsumi and these words were found from old paleography.
The 3rd shogun of Muromachi Era (1336-1573), Yoshimitsu Ashikaga built a big bath of his villa in Kyoto (nowadays Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto city) and many daimyos (powerful territorial lords) were invited to here.
The guests put their clothing into square-shaped fabric (which has their daimyo's family emblem), before they took a bath.
After taking a bath, they purified their bodies with these clothes.
The those days bath was different from modern Japanese bath (and hot spa) and it was same kind of Finnish sauna. People have purified their bodies with water vapor.
Slatted wooden flooring and cloth were spread on the floor of the bath and they balanced the water vapor and temperature of the bath.
Furoshiki's "furo" means bath and "shiki"-word comes from "shiku"-verb which means spread, in other words furoshiki means cloth which are spread on the bathroom.
Finally the common people have got to know taking a bath in Edo Era (1603-1867), because public bathes were built to here and there.
People wrapped their belongings, as clothing and towels when they visited to a public bath.
Also large sized furoshiki have been invented and people wrapped bigger belongings, as bedclothes and blankets with them, so they can bring these important things from home in an emergency, for example in a fire (there was a lot of fire in Edo Era).
In Meiji Era (1876-1912) Japanese textile industry has developed and also a lot of cotton- and silk fabrics and products were produced and also sold to overseas.
Then the common people used furoshiki and wrapped gifts with them, when they visited to someone's place.
In other hands fabric and leather bags, paper and plastic bags, wrapping papers have been introduced to Japan, so producing of furoshiki and using have decreased.
Nowadays Japanese have been interested in furoshiki and its use again, because now we have to consider about environmental protection, natural resources, and the greenhouse effect.
The using of furoshiki can reduce the using of plastic bags and wrapping papers as packing material, in addition furoshiki is thin and need a quite small space to keep and easy to carry.
The special features of furoshiki:
Pattern/color: Traditionally happy patterns such as pine, bamboo,
Japanese apricot, turtle, crane, folding fan or other patterns from natural motives have been used as design of furoshiki.
Traditional colors have been dark red, vermillion, indigo,
violet and yellow orange.
Nowadays also other patterns and colors are used.
Also some fashion designer design furoshiki\’s patterns and they fit into especially modern lifestyle, interior and fashion!
Material: Traditionally furoshiki's fabric has manufactured from silk and cotton.
As well the present time furoshiki is made of artificial materials such as rayon and nylon.
Size: The own measure of unit, shaku (ca. 30cm) and sun (ca. 3cm) have been used in Japan especially in the field of clothing.
Even now the sizes of furoshiki are called with old measure of length, but we'll show you these sizes with centimeters.
General sizes and their purposes:
45x45 cm (chu-haba): lunch box, small gift package
50x50 cm (shaku-san-haba): lunch box, gift package
68x68 cm (ni-haba): bigger gift package, sake- or wine bottle(s)
90x90 cm (ni-shi-haba): shopping bag
105x105 cm (san-haba): bigger shopping bag, table cloth, wrapping for clothing (=also for travelling)
130x130 cm (yon-haba) /175x175 cm (go-haba) /200x200 cm (roku-haba) /230x230 cm (nana-haba): zabuton (Japanese flat and large cushion), bedclothes, or blanket
Furoshiki is all-around fabric and it has many different ways of using. We'll show you some instructions for use on next page.
We have beautiful furoshiki-fabrics. Click here!
Beautiful and ecology furoshikis
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