What is a Furoshiki?
I was reading MAKE:’s blog today and came across an article on Furoshiki! This is way cool. The idea is that you take a large piece of lightweight cloth (cotton, rayon, nylon, or more traditionally, silk) and fold it and tie it to make a bag, a bottle holder, package wrapping or whatever. The demo video on the MAKE: site (Furoshiki link above) shows how to use one to carry groceries, among other things.
The custom seems to be about 600 years old. I guess even then they recognized the need for reusable packaging.
Here is an interesting ecerpt from The Japanese Ministry of the Environment site’s article on Furoshiki. They are trying to promote some made not of silk, but of recycled plastic:
I’ve created what you might call a “mottainai furoshiki”. The Japanese word mottainai means it’s a shame for something to go to waste without having made use of its potential in full. The furoshiki is made of a fiber manufactured from recycled PET bottles, and has a birds-and-flowers motif drawn by Itoh Jakuchu, a painter of the mid-Edo era.
These seem especially handy to carry around in case a bag is necessary. Who wants to carry an empty bag to dinner when on vacation? Bring one of these in your pocket or purse and Presto! a way to carry back that spontaneous purchase. No more “oh, I wish I had a way to carry that back”. I wish every travel site had them. Here is a picture, again from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment
along with folding instructions (she’s wrapping a bottle).
The Ministry is promoting them as a replacement for paper and plastic bags for shoppers. That seems reasonable, but I can’t seem to imagine tying a dozen or more on a regular trip to the grocery…
You can find furoshikis on the web for prices ranging from USD10 up. I think I will get one for my wife, but don’t tell her.
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Comments
I am still working on having all my green bags in the right place. They are either at home where I unpacked them or in the car and remembered only when standing in the checkout line. I think I would have the same issue with this. And then trying to remember how to tie it.
I suppose it is just a matter of developing the habits required. I wish I could get the baggers at the store to just put everything back in the cart and let me take it to the car and bag it in green bags. Wouldn’t that make sense?
Cool! Good Post…but I’m afraid the secrets out since I am the wife you were hiding it from! Tee hee. No Secrets in this web 2.0 world! Olives!