TENUGUI - BLUE RABBITS - JAPANESE COTTON FABRIC - NIWAKI
Here with rabbit patterns, dyed and printed by hand, Tenugui, a strip of light cotton fabric measuring 99.5 x 37.5 cm, occupies an important place in the lives of the Japanese.
It is used daily as a handkerchief, towel for hands, cooking, washing dishes, worn as a headband around the head for sports or Matsuris (festivals), but also as decoration, hung on the walls of homes.
Each piece is unique and significantly different.
- Weight: 35g
- Dimensions: 995 x 375 mm
- Material: Cotton
- Care: Wash separately at 30°C
- Made in Japan
After studying sculpture in London, Jake Hobson went to Japan to investigate the Japanese relationship with nature and their surrounding environment.
Jake discovered that Japanese gardens were not just like gardens. They were mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, and waterfalls. It was everything he loved; these gardens told stories and referred to real landscapes in Japan.
Niwaki literally means "garden tree," and is the art of tree pruning, very different from Bonsai, as the roots are not pruned. But Niwaki is much more than that. It implies a philosophy—that of the landscape, of recreating unique microcosms, and the vision of a man and his connection to, understanding of, and learning from nature.
But all this was possible thanks to the use of tools that shared the same philosophy, created slowly, simply, and by hand, by local master blacksmiths with exceptional expertise.
For Jake Hobson, every tool consists of three crucial elements:
- good material, primarily high-quality carbon steel
- good design, generally as simple as possible
- good craftsmanship, passed down from generation to generation.
Japanese tools do not skimp on any of these elements: You can feel the quality of the craftsmanship as soon as you hold them in your hand; they simply and perfectly do the job for which they were designed, and they last, holding their edge for a long time, rewarding the user with years, decades, and even a lifetime of pleasure.