Tenugui: Japanese Traditional Cloth

We're suckers for great fabric, the color blue and things that have multiple uses:

"Tenugui, a hand dyed cotton cloth has always been an essential tool for the Japanese. Not only was it used as a wiping tool such as a towel or a handkerchief, it was also used as a bandage or a headwear in the old days. To dry quicker in such a humid country like Japan, and for multipurpose use, the ends are unfinished so it will fray after first few washes."

We can think of a bunch of uses in the home for these wonderful (simple) pieces of fabric:
• As a dishtowel in the kitchen
• As a hand towel in the bathroom
• Use it to make lavender sachets
• Wrap presents in it (small presents)
• Frame one with a great pattern

Each cloth is 1x3' and you can buy a whole range of different colors (not just blue) at Tortoise.

Comments (6)

Kinokuniya carries these, and at least in Seattle, their selection is pretty nice.

There's a reason the Japanese no longer use these regularly in their homes and that is that they aren't as good as a terry cloth towels. They don't absorb moisture as well and tend to get very stiff when they've dried after becoming wet.

They're still nice for gift-wrapping and decorative purposes, but no one would use them as a towel if other options were available.

Yeah, tenugui tend to be a bit too flimsy to use as dish towels or hand towels. They make great cheesecloths though. And they're also good as bandanas.

I have tenugui towels from Tortoise in both my bathroom and kitchen and love them. I don't use them to dry dishes, but for hands, they are great - soft and gentle and the patterns are to die for. The ends lightly fray which I like, and I prefer the thinness of the fabric since I don't need a 2" thick plush towel for hand drying.

If you love the Japanese designs, I can't recommend them enough :)

furoshiki.com carries a very cool selection of authentic japanese design fabrics imported from japan. i was quite impressed because they carry designs that i haven't seen in japanese stores in LA or SF (which seems to be very "japanese-sy" to attract americans?).

The whole point is that they're thin. They dry quicker that way.

You can cut your (hair) blow-drying time in half by putting one of these on your damp head and blowing on top of it. Use your spare hand (from on top of the cloth) to lift hair to let air to the roots.

The fabric absorbs the water from your hair, and then--since it's so thin--will evaporate the water quickly.

This won't work for all kinds of hair (like if you need to hang your head upside down or use other tools), but putting it on top of curlers might work.