By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | January 10, 2008
Have ya’ll heard of furoshiki? I hadn’t, until I watched this awesome video (via Lifehacker) showcasing a neat way to turn a piece of square cloth into the coolest wine bottle carrier ever. Seriously, watch it, it’s revolutionary… except, it’s not– the wrapping techniques of furoshiki have been around for quite some time:
“Furoshiki is a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that was frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning “bath spread”, derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the sento (public baths)… Eventually, the furoshiki’s usage extended to serve as a means for merchants to transport their wares or to protect and decorate a gift. ”
If you lived in Japan, furoshiki was the way you carried things– that is, until the advent of the plastic bag, when the traditional wrapping technique fell out of favor. Given our current state of envirocrisis, it’s not surprising that furoshiki is making a comeback, being that it’s a reusable alternative to both disposable bags and wrapping paper. In 2006, the Japanese Minister of the Environment, Ms. Yuriko Koike, created the “Mottainai Furoshiki” as a symbol of Japanese culture to reduce waste– in a brilliantly green move, it was produced from recycled PET bottles!
In Ms. Koike’s words: “The Japanese word mottainai means it’s a shame for something to go to waste without having made use of its potential in full. The furoshiki is made of a fiber manufactured from recycled PET bottles, and has a birds-and-flowers motif drawn by Itoh Jakuchu, a painter of the mid-Edo era.”
The site furoshiki.com gives basic directions for tying up a variety of objects, and for those of us who learn best by watching, here’s a whole page of furoshiki videos. Plus, the site has the best tagline ever: “No paper, no plastic, bring your own.” Right on!
A really neat idea would be to wrap a gift in a furoshiki, and include a printout of this diagram for the recipient– so not only do they get the primary gift but also the secondary supercool there-won’t-be-two-of-those-at-the-party gift of the furoshiki. And the greenest way to do this would be to make a furoshiki from cloth you already have at home– perhaps an attractive old sheet or pillowcase, or nice fabric if you’re a crafty person with a stash. Wikipedia explains: “There is no one set size for furoshiki, they can range from hand sized to larger than bed-sheets. The most common sizes are 45cm (17.7 inch) and 68-72cm (26.7-28.3 inch).”
Have you ever given or received a furoshiki wrapped item? If WalMart started wrapping purchases in furoshiki, would you shop there?
[Image used entirely without permission from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment website, hope that's ok...]
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