TENUGUI

Before going out to split wood, work in the garden, clean the rain gutters or set out on any of the other sweaty tasks that abound, I get myself a nice clean tenugui and - if it's a hot day - I soak it in cool water and wring it out before tying it on or over my head, or draping it around my neck. While doing that very thing the other day I figured I should do a post about this wonderful fabric device, the moreso since PLM gets Googled numerously from abroad with the query 'how to tie a tenugui.'

The tenugui— now there's a cultural artifact. Every Japanese knows what a tenugui is, and no doubt has worn one many times, has one or two in the house somewhere, but I never hear them spoken of, and they are largely unknown in the West. I don't see tenugui around as much as I used to, though, especially in the city, except maybe on a street seller or at a festival now and then, when people get all traditional. In the countryside, you can still see tenugui on elder farmer and craft men and women, but the young folk seem to prefer naked styled hair.

There is a wealth of understanding vested in that oddly unsung bit of cotton cloth, though. It is a cultural artifact (or commercial), bearing a cultural (or commercial) symbol, but more importantly in its uniform size it simply ties securely around any head as a headband, whether the cloth is twisted (more cultural, for festivals or street sellers) or flat (practical labor) as well as it does over your head, whether folded or tied there by the lower corners (men at work) or by the upper corners (women at work) or just draped around your neck, hanging just far enough down on either side so as not to interfere with your arms in any way, very convenient for wiping away sweat— They come in an infinite range of colors and designs, and have so many diverse uses I'll only list a few of the other ones here: baby kerchief, carrying cloth, gift wrap, lamp shade, dog collar... they're also famously employed by ninja...

Anciently thought of, well evolved, still sold at temples and craft stores, still given as gifts by commercial establishments (I get one every year from my bank), that simple piece of fabric, how well it has come to understand the body, its shapes and functions... tied around the head or neck for the task at hand, or just let dangle when the task is done, to wipe away the sweat or dip into water to cool your face – it can be used as a simple bathing towel too-- Then at the end of that practical use, several tenugui are sewn together in layers and used till the very end as cleaning rags.

Or you could hang a new tenugui on the wall as a genuine work of folk art if you live outside Japan, though if you did that in Japan (unless it is a specially created work) your visitors would ask, with a chuckle, why in the world you have a tenugui on your wall...

Yet as bizarre as it sounds I have some pieces of antique Japanese futon cloth (tamba momen) hanging on the wall of my room...