During the holidays, most people are concerned with finding just the right gift. But in some cases, the gift wrapping takes on an importance of its own.
Furoshiki is a type of wrapping cloth that’s commonly used in Japan.
“It became a way of wrapping a gift, a carrying case for the gift,” said Ann Asakura, an artist at Temari Center for Asian and Pacific Arts in Honolulu. A group of temari artists recently held a craft marketplace at the Hawaii Japanese Center.
“In recent years, it’s been utilized as a gift wrapper that stays with the gift,” Asakura said. “It’s always a square. It can be as small as a women’s handkerchief.”
Furoshiki has a long history dating back to the 14th century and Japan’s Muromachi period, according to a release from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Some sources date its use even further back in time, to the Nara period and the eighth century.
People brought their belongings to bath houses inside their furoshiki, then used the squares of cloth as bath mats. “Furo” means bath in Japanese; “shiki” means spread or cover.
Over the centuries, furoshiki evolved into a wrapping for ceremonial and wedding gifts, eventually taking on its current usage.
“It’s really big in Japan right now because of reduce, reuse, recycle,” said Jan Kawabata, a fellow temari artist.
In 2006, the Japanese minister of the environment launched the Mottainai Furoshiki campaign to encourage people to use furoshiki not only as gift wrapping but in place of plastic bags at supermarkets.
“You don’t want to be wasteful, so you use everything,” Kawabata said. She said furoshiki is less common in Hawaii, and used more often by older generations of Japanese.
“My mother always used to,” Kawabata said. Most people who use furoshiki learn from their parents or from shop owners. A teacher from Japan taught the temari artists how to wrap and fold the cloth.
Kawabata demonstrated wrapping a box with a green furoshiki made by artist Moana K.M. Eisele. The shape of the gift determines how it’s wrapped — with the right size cloth and proper technique, everything from wine bottles to melons can be carried in furoshiki. Furoshiki, if it’s large enough, even can be used as a futon cover.
Eisele’s furoshiki were stamped in vibrant patterns.
“This is the part I love best, the decoration,” she said. “You take something that you (already) have and make use of it.”
Eisele said the dyed and stamped square cloth was a dish towel when she first bought it.
“But it was too nice to be a dish towel,” she said.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
