Hello everyone how are you doing? Today, I’d like to talk about “Wrapping cloth” (Furoshiki in Japanese) which you will surely find how beneficial item it is for the present facing big social environmentally problem around the world, so we can say it is “Cool Japan” item.
Contents
How terrible and deplorable scenes!
No matter where you go all over the world, you surely see that much of the coast has been contaminated by water-insoluble waste such as plastic bags and plastic bottles.
And many sea animals would die of indigestion and/or suffocated to death by trying to swallow these plastic waste.
The polluted plastics are not only in the sea coast, but also the sea bottoms too, and what much worse is we have no ideas how these accumulated waste would influence on ecological destructions including human beings some years later.
This is the tremendous big global problems, for which we have to solve as soon as possible.
Thanks to the advanced technological society of today, water-soluble and/or eatable plastics have been developed, however, I’d like to recommend what’s more ecnomical as it is very less expensive and you can use it for a long time.
what do you think it is?
That’s “Furoshiki”, a kind of wrapping cloth which has been used since the old days of Japan.
What’s Wrapping cloth (Furoshiki)?
Simple, square pieces of cloth like this made of cotton, silk, or other materials.
They’re called Furoshiki, Rapping cloth are versatile wrapping cloths. Not only are they useful for carrying things, they also make gifts look more attractive.
The word furoshiki comes from the culture of the bath, or furo in Japanese.
In the 14th century, when samurai and aristocrats used a communal bath, they would take a change of clothes wrapped in a cloth.
After bathing, they would use the cloth as a bath mat on which to get dressed. Shiki means “something spread on the floor”, so the cloths used when taking a furo came to be known as furoshiki.
Later, the use of furoshiki spread to ordinary people, and they became an essential item for carrying things.
Wrapping cloth (Furoshiki) can be used to wrap just about anything.
They can even be used to wrap bottles of wine. You roll two bottles up in a furoshiki. Then stand them upright, which folds the furoshiki in the middle.
Finally, bring the corners together and tie them in a knot. This wrapping method helps to keep fragile bottles from breaking and creates an easy-to-carry handle.
With furoshiki, there’s also a way to wrap a long box that seems too big for the cloth. Bring the near corner and the far corner together, intertwine them, take one end to the left-hand corner and the other to the righ-hand corner, and tie a knot at both ends.
The fact that a piece of cloth can be folded into various shapes to contain almost any object is the most distinctive characteristic of furoshiki.
Furoshiki used for wrapping gifts often have auspicious patterns on them. This one depicts pine, bamboo, ume plum, the crane, and the turtle, which all symbolize good fortune.
It’s traditionally believed that wrappping a gift with a cloth featuring auspicious symbols like these keeps the gift pure.
Furoshiki are not just a means of wrapping objects. These cloths are used to express respect for others and to wish them good luck.
The Japanese put a lot of thought and heart into gift-giving, and furoshiki are clear evidence of that sensibility.
Last but not least, shall we use Furoshiki from now on when shopping, when presenting something to your acquaintances in order to restore dirty seas to clean waters globally, thanks
