Japanese

FROM Japanese

Furoshiki

 

FuroshikiAn ingenious serving bowl which allows multipurpose use in our daily life is called an ikki-tayou (a multi-use bowl). In Japan, there are several multi-use livingwares. Chopsticks play several roles. Knives are only used for cutting, as well as forks for impaling and spoons for scooping. However, chopsticks are used for diverse purposes such as cutting, impaling, scooping, snaring, holding and mixing. In relation to food, the hōchō (the Japanese kitchen knife) also is an all-purpose utility knife. And the furoshiki a piece of cloth, is also a Japanese traditional multi-purpose utility tool. The furoshiki enables the beautiful wrapping and easy carriage of various types of things like round fruits such as apples or watermelons, or even, by getting a little creative with wrapping and knotting, glass bottles of wine or sake.

 

The history of wrapping things using a piece of cloth is old, and at the Shōsōin treasure house in Nara, Japan we can see an old cloth which was used for wrapping clothes in the Nara period (about 1200 years ago). It is said that such a cloth began to be called furoshiki after the Edo period (1603–1868). Along with the distribution of the sentō (Japanese public bath), the furoshiki came to be popular. When taking a bath (in Japanese, furo means bath), bathers bundled the removed kimonos using cloths to prevent a mix up with the other bathers' clothes, put the cloths on the floor to wipe their feet, and groomed using the cloths. Then, the cloths were placed on the floor (shiku in Japanese) of the bath (furo) and came to be called furoshiki. Also in the Edo period, merchants used the furoshiki for carrying their goods, travelers used it for packing their items, and also families who had brides used it for wrapping marital packages. The furoshiki was distributed throughout Japan and used in various situations from daily to ritual purposes.

 

The Furoshiki was widely used in the Edo, Meiji, and Taishō to Shōwa periods as an essential cloth, but it faded from the limelight after the mid-Shōwa (1950s-1960s) when supermarkets appeared in Japan. At supermarkets, people could get free paper or plastic bags, and the need for using the furoshiki diminished. Due to pervasive mass consumption and the spread of disposable goods, the mottainai spirit and the idea of appreciating things seemed to also fade out from Japanese people's memories, and the use of the furoshiki in daily life was almost forgotten.

 

Recently under the influence of eco-friendly lifestyles, people have again started to focus on the use of repeatedly usable furoshiki. Just as we say "if the wind blows, the bucket makers prosper (any event can bring about an effect in an unexpected way)," we can also say that the more we use the furoshiki, the more biodiversity we can maintain. In other words;

(1) The more people use the furoshiki, the less people use the plastic bag in daily life

(2) The fewer plastic bags we use, the more we can save on fossil fuels

(3) The fewer plastic bags we use, the more the quantity of garbage we can reduce (equivalent to 600,000 tons per year)

(4) The more garbage we can reduce, the more CO2 emissions are suppressed with incineration

(5) The more CO2 emissions are suppressed, the more we can alleviate global warming

(6) The more we can alleviate global warming, the more we can maintain biodiversity.

 

But unfortunately, now we do not have so many occasions when we can see the furoshiki being used in cities. The furoshiki's flexibility for wrapping various forms of things, its portability for carrying in a compact form when it is not being used, and its diverse color/design variations according to purpose or season can contribute to the global environment as well as to biodiversity. Why don't we have more opportunities to use the furoshiki in our daily lives as a symbol of the mottainai spirit and waste reduction?

 

(Mitsuru Numata)

Japanese