Furoshiki

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A furoshiki ( Japanese 風 呂 敷 ) is a square cloth that is traditionally used, especially in Japan, as packaging and as a carrier bag , for example for gifts or clothes. The name, which comes from the Edo period , means something like “bath towel” because it was customary in public bathhouses at that time to keep one's clothes in such towels, but similar usage, for example among traders, goes back to the Nara period . An older name was hirazutsumi ( 平 包 , dt. "Flat bundle"). Nowadays, synthetic fibers , cotton or silk are used as materials , the sizes are varied, usually from around 45 cm to around 100 cm edge length. Furoshiki, which are often printed with traditional patterns or dyed in the Shibori style, are used to wrap gifts, but also to wrap the snack containers ( Bentō ) that are common in Japan , where they also replace placemats or napkins .

After the Second World War, the use of these wipes fell sharply: the plastic bag was increasingly preferred for daily shopping . The idea of ​​recycling and approaches to environmental protection in everyday life led to a revival of this Japanese cultural heritage around the year 2000. The Austrian provocatively environmentally conscious artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed a cotton furoshiki for Fernwärme Wien GmbH and called it "Binkel-Bundel.Furoshiki".

In 2006, the Japanese Environment Minister Yuriko Koike presented a Furoshiki that she had designed herself to promote its use as a contribution to environmental protection.

  • Furoshiki as gift packaging

  • Two bentō , packed in furoshiki.

  • Bottle packaging

  • Christmas gift

  • Hundertwasser's
    "Binkel Bundle"

The corresponding cloth is called "Bojagi" in Korea .

Remarks

  1. ↑ The specialty store Kakefuda, Kyoto, names 105 cm edge length as the size of the demonstration models (see video / web links).
  2. ↑ Binkel is the eastern Austrian word for bundle. 90 × 90 cm.
    The two-tone graphic is based on Hundertwasser's design of the Spittelau waste incineration plant , in which a Hundertwasser Trail was set up in 2009 .
  3. ↑ Website of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment (English)

Web links

Commons : Furoshiki  - collection of images, videos and audio files