The art of the Japanese Tenugui

In earlier posts I have sometimes shown a quilt backing which has been composed of Japanese tenugui or cotton towels. Indeed, many of the quilts I have made use tenugui either on the back or as part of the design. Sometimes I get questions about tenugui so today I thought it would be fun to show and tell more than you may wish to know about the art of tenugui, and indeed, it is an art.

I have sometimes referred to tenugui to be seen along the lines of postage stamps. Although I was a poor student of history and geography, I loved to collect postage stamps. They were like tiny travel posters showing the nature, historical events, places and people that defined a country.
Each country puts out lovely commemorative issues and they may be used on letters as regular postage or kept as collectors items. We can learn a lot by examining these stamps and they are small enough to be stored in albums.

Tenugui are rectangular cotton hand towels. They were sometimes distributed as gifts by shops or firms commemorating their opening and may contain addresses or the phone number of the shop. The tenugui of yesterday has gradually been replaced by terrycloth towels and handkerchiefs and many of today's tenugui are pure art to be looked at as well as used. We used to have a tenugui of the Tokyo Tower that had been framed and hung as a picture by my Father-in-law. Sometimes they are sewed into bags or cushions or noren, a strip curtain dividing rooms. They are often used as stage props in kabuki, rakugo (comical storytelling), and Japanese dancing.

The process by which these towels are made is as fascinating as the towels themselves. Both Yukata (a cotton summer kimono) and tenugui are dyed as a strip of fabric. That bolt or roll is anywhere from thirteen and a half to about fifteen inches in width. The cloth is stenciled with a kind of paste that works much like wax in batik. It is done in sections and folded back over itself like an accordion. The length might vary depending on the ultimate use but one roll is usually enough to make one yukata with some bit left over.

After each application of paste, the dye is put on top of the pile of fabric over a vat of the same width and sucked through the pile. Then the excess dye and paste are washed out, and the fabric dried and re-wound for further dying or cutting into lengths.



The price can range from around five hundred yen for a two color towel of simple design to thousands of yen for real works of art.
The series of childrens' games on my last post cost around one thousand two hundred per towel a few years back when the dollar/yen was about 100 yen to the dollar.

The small kaleidoscope quilt has five towels on the back. The writing on the red one is a poem or song. The other four show a sense of humor, such as advice on manners and replies to requests and the like.


I have photographed some un-cut towels and you can see how each section is the reverse of the one before. If the design includes writing, one has to be careful to put the right side facing up as it is impossible to tell one side from the other by just looking at the pattern.

The two top towels have a design depicting strips of cloth being stretched out to dry. The blue and white towel can be folded in half lengthwise and then accordion folded to form a cloth book. This piece of art shows the variety of ways to use a tenugui, from a blindfold for a children's game, a head scarf, exercising, fishing, bathing and even picking fruit. The towel with many people is of a festival. The people are carrying portable shrines and they are all wearing tenugui as hachimaki or headbands to keep the perspiration from their eyes. The lower towel with the red character says "matsuri" or festival and that is the type of towel most often worn as a hachimaki.


Here are a few more forms of towel containing writing. The top is advice on how to live a long life. Actually, it is a list of funny excuses to give when your maker comes to call you home. The dark blue is writing by someone having reached the auspicious age of 88. The iris on white is the name of a Sumo wrestler who may have presented these to his fans upon being promoted to a higher rank. The beige towels show some folk art.

This year many of the places selling the towels had a selection of rabbits as this is the rabbit year by the oriental zodiac. Several quilts I have made for my grandchildren feature zodiac animal towels on the back. On one I asked family members to sign their names on their animal.

Just like stash, these towels tend to grow in numbers in dark places. Unlike postage stamps they take up more room. I have a set of three plastic stacking drawers and in true librarian fashion, the towels are folded and placed by topic. They might be festivals like those above, famous kabuki scenes, sumo wrestlers' hand prints, scenes from famous places, flowers of various seasons, and just like postage stamps, interesting bits of culture. Some may find their way to the backs of quilts. Others are old that have been given me by people clearing out their cupboards. I once made a purple quilt for my SIL who loves purple and just went through the pile pulling out any towel with purple for the back. Most of those were from Japanese dance school recitals or kabuki actors assuming a family name.

The cloth tends to be more loosely woven that modern print cotton. It is surprisingly durable and the colors are fast. It is quite soft and less likely to slide off a child's bed. Because of the variety of lengths and widths it is not easy to piece into one large back. It can be pieced along with yukata fabric but is noticeably different from regular cotton prints in texture. I would offer some to anyone interested if they thought they might be able to find a use for it. Then, again, I still have three cat panels looking for a home.

Star Crossed goes to the festival

Years ago, when I was performing regularly with the Tokyo Piping Society, a small group was asked to play outside a Tokyo department store to draw attention to a "Festival U.K. '98 "that was being held inside. When we had a break, I went inside to see what the "Fair" was all about. Along with British goods there was also a small quilt show and one quilt by Lucy Boston caught my eye. It was all done in lozenge-shaped hexagons and, I think, called "Stars and Crosses". The interesting thing was the variety of patterns that could be made with just one shape. I took out my notebook and made a sketch of the general design before going out for another piping session.

As time went on, that sketch in my notebook kept calling my attention and I decided to try that pattern out. I had begun assembling a selection of red, white, and blue fabric for another quilt I had in mind so decided to limit the color to that just to try out the design.

This pattern was particularly good with striped fabrics and somewhat fussy to do so I only made 20 blocks as a test. I swore at the time this would be my last adventure with hexagons but that was not necessarily the case. I named it "Star Crossed" because I was doomed from the time I first saw it. Later I made a full sized quilt of the same design and named that one "Double Crossed".


The backing was made from Japanese Tenugui, printed cotton towels. These four are of Japanese Children's games. When I showed the quilt to the elderly man who made the towels, he was delighted to sign his name on the lower towel. Since them I have acquired a set of 17 of these towels and am thinking I may again use them for a quilt back.

With Blogger down and my computer having it's dying spasms, I am a bit late to post for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival. I will give it a try but the computer guru came in and re-arranged everything and I'm not too sure I can link in or add the button. The quilts are great and I could spend the whole day looking at other's posts.

(LATER) I have spent a frustrating two hours trying to figure out how to get that button added but nothing has worked so far. You can check them out by clicking on Amys Creative Side on the right side of my blog.

Side-tracked!

You may think that when a quilt group meets, they quilt. Well, we eat too and when we were sitting at the table, attention went to these dolls sitting on the shelf. I had taken them out for my granddaughter to play with and found they were falling apart. I don't remember how long ago I made them or how old they are now. Maybe one of my daughters will look and comment. (I do know some were still babys because one of the kids bit the nose off the girl doll and it had to be fixed.)The lower arms and legs are carved out of wood and the heads are made of paper mache. The girl doll was made first and her body was made from pigskin. The boy's body was made from deerskin and was first to deteriorate. Neither could take the rigors of play and needed new bodys. Long ago I had bought a piece of peach muslin for that purpose but had not gotten around to making repairs.

I had made my own pattern to make the dolls in the first place and had not saved it. I decided the time had come to get these fixed while we had granddaughters to enjoy them. I began with the boy doll because he had completely fallen apart. You can see beside him the body section. Taking out the stuffing, I traced them to make patterns. I was hoping to get the size about the same so the clothing would still fit.
I dressed him from time to time as I went along to make sure of the length if legs and arms was OK.

After fixing the boy, I was feeling better about taking the girl apart. Now they are both in good repair and waiting for a little girl to play with.

All the clothing was made without patterns and stored in a basket with a button lid. A lot of it needs to be washed. The girl doll is wearing a dress made from fabric I used to make a dress for my eldest daughter so they would match. The night gown for the girl is smocked and the tan striped nightshirt for the boy has a night cap too. There were a number of knit pieces too. The boy's sweater is still in good shape but the vest has moth holes as do many other pieces. The boy has a dress kilt and a tuxedo too. His grey corduroy suit has slit pockets and huge cuffs. Hmmm, when were those cuffs fashionable? The girl has more dresses as she was made first.

These days you can buy Barbie dolls and find a whole selection of clothing on toy store shelves but when I was growing up, your dolls came with only what they were wearing when purchased. I got my first doll on Christmas when I was three. Her name is Alice. She came with a black wig which I didn't like so I played with her very little.

On my fourth birthday she came to my party with a blond wig and can be seen in my arms in frequent pictures from then on. I do not recognize the dress she is wearing in the picture. Probably it is the one she was wearing when she was purchased. It was from this year I began to sew, begging scraps from my mom so that my doll had clothing for every occasion. An interesting note is that the teddy bear my twin brother is holding was intended for me on my first Christmas. There were two and I got the brown one which I still have, dressed in clothing to hide the bare places where his fuzz was loved off.

In those days there were no patterns that I know of for doll clothing. There was the depression and then a war and luxuries were in short supply. If a kid wanted something, you had to figure out how to make it! In many ways I think that was a good life for children. My own children, too, had lots of fun making things and even as adults have kept the creative spirit alive. It is not unusual that during some visit we spend a little time looking over some project one of them is working on and figuring out how to solve some challenge they might be facing.

You have seen the owls. Here is one corner of the doll shelf where Alice sits today. Beside her to the right is "Little Love", my second doll. Both are wearing homemade clothing as are the others. (there are four more shelves ... just like the owls, they tend to gather)

Well, this is a quilting bolg, not a collections blog, and if you look behind the dolls on the sofa, that bit of blue is a quilt I started to make many many years ago for those two dolls. I found it in my fabric box when I was hunting up that peach muslin for fixing the dolls. That was before the days of UFOs. I guess now that the dolls are fixed I'd better finish it up... or maybe get off this computer and get busy on other waiting projects. Strange it is, the things that side-track us!

Quake + 4 weeks and whooooo's counting?

Tomorrow it is my turn to be hostess to my quilting circle.
That means a lot of serious cleaning ... the yellow dust that blew in from China this week and mega-tons of fall-out from the dog.
So I begin in one area of the house, the front door "genkan" where guests leave their shoes, the slipper rack, the mirror on the coat closet, the wooden stairs that show every particle of dust, and next to that, the lavatory.

This is what took the biggest hit during the first few quakes. What is amazing is that so few of these owls that flew off the shelves were broken. Luckily they fly better than cats.

Last Saturday I counselled eight Boy Scouts in the "Collections" Merit Badge. That is one of my happiest Scouting jobs. I love to see and hear about what teenage boys collect and when it comes to collecting, I am an EXPERT!

I mentioned eight weeks ago my cat collection, how these things tend to multiply when people start to see them in shops and think you need one more... well, that collection is up on the third floor and so has stopped growing rapidly.

On the other hand, one well-placed owl in the powder room is just asking for trouble.
Every guest comes out of there saying, "I see you collect owls."

So, today the owls must all come down to be dusted. There are pottery owls. There are owls that are containers. There are carved wooden owls, Basketry owls, lacquer owls, seed decorated owls, horn owls, cloisonne owls, time-keeping owls, and piggy bank owls.

These owls are bells and whistles. Two of their number didn't survive a fall into the sink.

A printer friend gave me some type cases made to hold lead print. The little owls thought they made fine roosts.

In fact, these owls
are quite happy roosting anywhere or just hanging out on the door or the walls as decorations, pictures, kites, towel holders, and even the TP holder I made last year.

I used to have a seat cover that I quilted but when we moved here, the shape of the seat lid was too wide. That one I gave to my daughter who happily put it on her toilet lid. I wonder if owls will begin to multiply at her house as well.

Lest you think you have seen all of my owls, remember, this is only one room and there is hardly anywhere in this rabbit hutch that you would be un-watched by at least one owl. From the time I was a little kid camping out in our woods in the summer, I have had a special relationship with owls. They are my guardians, messengers, and spirit helpers.

This quilted owl used to hang in our entryway to greet guests. Now I have a carved wooden owl there and this one hangs on the slanted ceiling under the roof where I sleep.

Now, I'd better get back to dusting and cleaning and make a pie for tomorrow's meeting.

Golden Week 2011

This week brings a whole string of holidays beginning with the former Emperor's birthday on the 29th of April and ending on the 5th of May, Children's Day. (The former Boy's Day). When my children were young, the third day of the third month was the Doll Festival and celebrated by girls with an elaborate display of court dolls and special foods. The fifth day of the fifth day was "Boys Day". The display for that day is a miniature set of armor or a helmet, swords. bows and arrows, and banners.

From a tall pole carp streamers are flown representing the father and sons. Well, for whatever reason you can imagine, the day was declared to be "Children's Day" as the years passed but the displays have not changed even though some of those carp streamers are now representing daughters.

Using a tenugui carp, I made this table runner many years ago. In those days I had a large table seating 16 people so this runner is now running off both ends of my coffee table. The round applique is a wheel with feathers that turns in the wind at the top of the pole.

The printed panel is for boys day and shows Kintaro riding on a bear. I had two panels that were similar and used one of them on the back of my grandson Ben"s quilt. This one is very bold and I shall never use it but if anyone out there would like to have it, just let me know. The size is 33"x43". cotton made by Kanebo

While I am at it, I found these cat panels that were hiding in that same box and would like a new home as well. There are three of the first panel with pink, red and yellow floral borders

and one of the second panel with a green floral border. The individual cat pictures are about 15in. square with the frame and the whole panel of four is about 34"x 44". They might make a cute bag but I have more bags than storage space. The selvage says "designed in the U.S.A. for Erlanger"

And why do I have these if I am not planning to use them? Don't even ask! But if I can find someone who wants them for free... I may have some more stuff to pass along.

And now, blooming just in time for this season is my Iris. Actually, it is my Sister-in-law's iris. Some years ago she planted the bulb in the garden and it came up as a surprise two years ago, one lone flower in the middle of a gardenia bush. Last year it bloomed again and I was thinking I might move it to a better spot when this year it sent up three flowers. Now I am thinking it seems to like it where it is and I'd better leave well enough alone. These Iris open pale yellow and white but as the days go on the yellow becomes more intense and the centers turn lavender. For those who make seasonal Ikebana arrangements, the iris is used on boys day as the leaves are shaped like swords.

Happy Golden Week to all!

Wedding quilt finished at last

Exactly one year and ten months to the day, the wedding quilt is finally finished. The plan was conceived when I was asked by my friend to be the matron of honor at her wedding. I have known both the bride and groom since before they knew each other. The got to know each other well at a Leader Training week called "Wood badge" where I served on Staff. They were both in the "Bear" patrol.

You may have noticed the bear paw blocks around the outer border so now you know the reason. As a side note, every scrap of green in the border has appeared in another quilt beginning with my first. It was fun to be reminded of those as I worked on the blocks piecing and quilting.

Before the wedding I drew leaf shapes on assorted green fabric. These were put in a zip-lock along with a sign marker and that plus a clipboard covered in sandpaper were passed to my husband and Nikko (yes, the dog was invited too) and their duty was to get signatures of all the guests. Those leaves were appliqued on the vine in the inner border.

The Lone Star is a typical motif of Native American celebratory quilts. All three of us are members of the Order of the Arrow, an honor society within the BSA which is based on Indian lore and theme. The groom particularly loves Kokopelli so I gave him a triangle of paper and asked him to draw one to fit the shape. It is quilted into the triangles formed by the stars.


The four square segments are quilted with the BSA logo,

The SAJ (Scout Association of Japan) logo, The groom's family crest of two crossed feathers, and the character for long life.

The reverse side of the quilt is made up of Japanese tenugui, a dyed cotton towel. These are often made to commemorate events or places and an art form in themselves. They are dyed similar to batik so are reversible and the cotton is soft yet strong.

Among these are many Kabuki theme towels as the bride has done the English earphone guide for Kabuki for many years. There is even one of the Kabuki-za, the building which is now being torn down and rebuilt. Some other towels are auspicious for celebratory occasions like cranes or shochikubai (pine, plum, and bamboo) and there is one from the BSN (Boy Scouts of Nippon which changed to Scout Association of Japan when girls were added to packs and troops.

My plan for this quilt was to have both the front and the back without any definite top or bottom. The size is seven feet four inches square and can be rotated for even wear as I know it will be used and cherished for many years. If you think the colors strange for a wedding quilt, when I asked my friend what colors she liked, she said her husband loves warm fall colors.I hope she does too but it shows what kind of friend she is.

So here is a picture from "The wedding of the bears". Note the bride and groom decoration in front.

And here is the matron of honor, in my comfortable native regalia, standing with my assistant outside my front garden bed at the end of a very happy day.

Note that the bride asked that my bouquet be something "wild" or "natural".

There is a poem that goes:

"It is my joy in life to find, At every turning of the road, The strong arm of a comrade, kind, To help me onward with my load. But since I have no gold to give, and love alone must make amends, the only prayer is, while I live, God make me worthy of my friends."
I pray, too, this quilt will be found worthy of this friendship.

Six weeks after the quake ... the new normal

One can not sing in a church choir and not know Easter is coming. That thought reminded me of Easters long past when the kids and I made batik eggs and I remembered a dish my daughter made in High School that we displayed those eggs in. I have few places to store such stuff and over the years things as delicate as eggs are easily broken but I was able to locate the dish and a few hardy eggs to set the mood.

I have yet to figure out how to arrange pictures and words on this blog other than last in means on top.

I wanted to show some quilting progress. The wedding quilt will soon be done. The binding is on and the outer border is finished. I was not happy with the spaces around the applique leaves. I quilted in extra leaves to fill some of the spaces but not all the empty places were big enough to hold a leaf so I decided to add tendrils in those spaces that look a bit too puffy. I think I an liking this inner border better now. One side down, four to go.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in my "garden".

I know this might not count as a garden for most but this is what I have squeezed between two three story buildings.

As you can see, even a one meter garden can look like a jungle, perhaps more so because of the lack of space. Somewhere beyond that greenery is my garden door. The bars on the right are for hanging laundry. The yellow thing is a guide wire for the electric pole outside the gate. (the city decides who gets those. I may get the whole pole next quake. There was another clock-stopper last night).

I got out the folding ladder, shears and saw and filled two garbage bags with trimmings.

The kerria is just too pretty to whack off. I brought a cutting here from my last house.

I tied it behind the wire and will trim it a bit after the flowers are finished.

The rest of the garden is hanging on the walls. A hardy cyclamen usually blooms all winter but was not too happy with this years weather and has saved the major blooming for spring. An early orchid also had a difficult winter and I was afraid it had given up but after all, it blooms too.

Primroses usually also bloom throughout the winter but only one made it through. This one is making up for lost time.

The forget-me-nots were given me by my number one son many years ago. I dug them up and moved them to my last home and when I moved back to where I am now, I dug them up again and put them in the hanging pot. During last summer when I was away doing Scouting things, they were not watered and I came home to find a pot of brown leaves too far gone to revive. Luckily they had seeded themselves because in the fall they began to put up sprouts. Even surviving snow piled high they are making me smile.

Quilt group meets at last.

Friday, April 15, our quilt group was finally able to meet. It had been quite a while since the group had last met (since before the quake). Since I am a "Senior Citizen" I carry a "Silver Pass". With that pass I can ride certain trains and city buses for free. One becomes a "senior" upon reaching seventy and from then on, there is a concerted effort to keep aged drivers off the streets. When the government brings up statistics of traffic accidents involving us old folks, they also include accidents where the old person was the victim. Since Japan's population is aging anyway and old people can't dodge cars as quickly (thus "involved") I feel we are getting a bad rap. The last three accidents I was involved with were all caused by drivers under the age of 30 ... two talking on a cell phone at the time ... and one I was sitting in my car that was parked! At any rate, the pass is a good way to save money. I never used to take buses because the base fee is 200 yen and that is rather high. Now I am always looking at maps and schedules trying to figure out the cheapest way to get somewhere. Brain, legs, and patience are being exercised and I am taking in the sights hitherto unknown.

Friday as I walked to the meeting from the bus by a new route, I was met by the remains of the very short cherry blossom season. I couldn't help remembering my kids sweeping these petals into big piles and tossing them into the air.

Along the street I found these flowers in full bloom. In Japanese they are called "Tokiwa mansaku". Mansaku is the name of witch hazel. There are a number of varieties of witch hazel in Japan, usually yellow, and all early bloomers. Most belong to the family, Hamamelis. These are of the Loropetalum family. We used to have a row of them at the last place we rented. They grow rapidly and need lots of trimming. I kept them well trimmed and enjoyed the blooms but when I walked by that house recently I noticed all those bushes have been removed. I guess the new renters do not like gardening.

It was fun to join the group after over a months time. We take our lunch but the hostess of the day provides us with a dessert. This time we also had some delicious soup. The member is working on a quilt for her new granddaughter and one of the members helped her with the basting.

My own big quilt is coming along and I hope to finish up and take a picture in a week or two. Since Friday my computer has been having connectivity issues and I have not been able to post or enjoy the work of others.(or even answer letters and comments). I have no idea how long this connection might last so I hasten to try the publish button before everything disappear into wherever those words go.

All shook up but moving on

Inch by inch is the ultimate scrap quilt. Back in 2002 I was saving any scrap down to one inch triangles. These bits went with me to meetings, train, and bus rides in a zip-lock baggie and served as a take-along work for quite a while. There was no real plan other than to use up bits and pieces from other projects. The final result covers the back of my old sofa where it looks better than it does hanging on the fence. Last week it made a trip to the pre-school class for a game of I-spy. Today when I took it to the park to take a digital photo, it was suddenly surrounded by kids looking for cats and bears, hearts and stars, and showing off their English. Finally we had one day of sun and warm weather. I had been waiting for this chance to give Nikko a bath. I need to rub her down outside until she is dry. The reason you can see behind me. That is NOT snow, but dog hair. The bag by my stool is full of hair and she has plenty left over. After a couple of hours of rubbing she got a walk to the park and I had to clean up the neighborhood. Some escaped in the wind and is probably half way to Oregon as I write. Amid the occasional quakes, the morning brought two Brown-eared Bulbuls to my wall. Usually they come alone and chase others away from the food but today they sat glaring into my window from the top of the empty cup as I uncovered the canary and seemed to be saying,"How about us? Where is our breakfast?" Today I saw bugs flying in the park and expect these visits to end soon. One violet (which is actually a weed) has managed to make it to a hanging flower pot outside my front door. Having done better than the original owner of the pot, it seemed to say,"You wouldn't dare pull me out" and it is correct. Spring is the season of "Hana-mi" or flower-viewing. Monday I lunched with the pre-school kids under the cherry trees with pale pink petals drifting down. This annual rite is a symbol of Japanese culture, helping to throw off the winter blues and reset one's mental and emotional attitudes. With the tragedies of the past month, people are wondering if it is right to celebrate or if those flower-viewing parties should be banned all together. This might just be a good time to reconsider the brevity of life and reassess the beauty of each passing moment. The sorrow and anguish and anxiety people feel will not vanish just by looking at pretty blossoms but returning to these customs gives us a much needed break.


Quilting Gallery's Weekly Theme contest this week is "scrappy". I'm sure there will be some good posts to enjoy. Not being much of a computer wizard, you can get there by clicking on the Quilting gallery logo as I just can't get the weekly theme button posted.

Still shaking ..or..quake + 4 weeks

Slowly slowly slowly the quilting continues.

This old wall clock hangs in the corner of my living room and counts down the hours with a clanging chime. A few decades older than I am, it has felt many quakes over the years and usually carries on it's business without complaint only asking to be wound every 7 to 10 days. The past weeks it has been busy at it's hidden agenda, to judge the extent of each quake and after-shock. "Is that a quake I feel? Couldn't be very bad, the clock is still ticking." Well, it was on the job last night ... maybe a bit behind in the time but so am I . (might have something to do with age)


At the time I had been listening to a couple of feral cats loudly fighting? courting? serenading? the neighborhood. Their audience temporarily distracted by the noisy shaking of buildings, they stopped. Interestingly, less than a minute after the quake ended, they resumed their yowling as if nothing had happened.

I thought how like Japan these cats are. The trains stop. The TV programing switches to warning mode. Power goes off. People stop what they are doing ... and check the clock... then slowly things return to normal (or the NEW normal) and life goes on. Like much of life you have no control over anything except how you react to the situation. Today my dog lies in the entryway, the very place she was terrified to be twice in four weeks, and life goes on as usual.