Tokyo Tenugui Edo Collection: Unbreakable Chain

Tenugui are Japanese style cloths, used as hand towels, table runners, or even bandanas in certain situations.

Tokyo Wazarashi are a classic dye studio, who follow traditional methods in printing the cloths.

A line of dye is poured using a kettle tool called 'yakan' onto the cloth to make these tenugui hand towels. The dyeing method of 'chusen' was developed over a hundred years ago in the Meiji period.

Until then, only three to four pieces of 12-metre bleached cloths could be dyed per day. With chusen, however, up to 150 pieces can be dyed. With the increase in production, the tenugui became a part of everyday life.

Print-resistant paste is placed on the cloths, which are folded over each other in accordion fashion. An enclosure for the paste is added for each dye colour, and gently from the 'yakan', the dye is poured.

A vacuum at the bottom sucks the dye so it wil penetrate through all the stacked cloths. With this unique dyeing technique, there are no front or back to their tenugui, which is not possible with textile printing.

The aesthetic benefit of this is, when using the tenugui for purposes for wrapping items for example, even the knot itself is beautiful to the eye.

It's long and narrow form is suited for wrapping items of any shape, such as a bottle of wine or a box of sweets.

Size: Length 100cm x Width 36cm

Package weight: 50g

Material: Cotton

Manufacturer website