(photo by author)
I never knew what other uses the Tenugui had besides using them for Japanese dance (日本舞踊 nihon buyou).
Last month, I received a tenugui from a store. It was plain with their logo. My first thought was “What am I even going to do with this piece of cloth?” I just put it in my drawer and considered throwing it away as I saw no use for it.
(photo by author)
However I was curious when I saw the ICC event. I thought that I finally had a use for them. I also wanted to learn about them, what was different from a normal piece of cloth or from those bento box wrapping cloths.
Thanks to this workshop, I discovered its many uses! It was mind blowing!! I loved the headband, it was simple and beautiful. I regretted not taking a better picture. At that moment I thought of the many uses I could give to all my stored tenugui.
Did you know you can use them under your clothes to keep you dry in summer from the sweat? I did not! Now, I want to use them under my suit! Later, we learned how to fold it to hold a water bottle. It felt so stylish that I went home holding it like that. It was my “brand” bag. When I got home, I looked into other folding techniques. It’s a Pandora’s box, full of surprises!
(photo by author)
In addition I learned about the dyeing process, called Chusen. I hope to do a workshop for that too. I think I would not be able to do the whole process as the technique is important to make 25m of cloth of the same design at once!
If you have the opportunity, please try it!!
