New · Made in Shizuoka, Japan · New for the holidays
Hamamatsu chusen dyeing · cotton · five cloths, 34 × 90 cm each
Five Lucky Tenugui, Hand-Dyed in Hamamatsu
Five cotton tenugui, each dyed by hand in a different lucky pattern: Mount Fuji in navy, shippō circles in red, snowflakes in blue-green, camellias in wine red, and goldfish among water plants.
$79 Free shipping to 32 countries
Order by November 20 to make sure it arrives before Christmas.
We ship to mainland China: free, tracked. Import duties, if any, are paid on delivery. Where we ship
$55 when added to any other piece in your order: it travels in the same box.
A gift for luck and protection · a new home
Leaves Fukuoka within one week by tracked airmail.
What buyers say · ★★★★★ on Etsy
“Received updates regarding the item I purchased and when it arrived could tell that it was packed with care; my fragile ceramic bunny arrived in perfect condition! A wonderful purchase and I would buy from this shop again”
Jessica · United States
1 more from buyers
“Item was as described and in photos shown. Excellent quality. Seller very knowledgable and took the time to explain everything”
Tiang N. · Australia
- Made in Japan. Hamamatsu chūsen, from Shizuoka prefecture.
- New, never used. Checked and packed by hand in Fukuoka.
- Returns within 14 days of delivery. Not right? Send it back as it came and we refund the full price, return postage included.
- Packed safely, sent by tracked airmail within one week. Order $100 or more and it flies EMS express.
Duties, checkout and extras
- ★ 5.0 on Etsy · Star Seller. Read the reviews ↗
- Import tax. It depends on your country; if any is due, it is collected on delivery.
- US import duties. Already included in the price: nothing to pay at your door.
- Secure checkout by Stripe — cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay. No account needed.
- Two pieces, one parcel. Each extra piece in the same order is $15 off at checkout.
- Orders of $200 or more travel with a gift to keep: Japanese chopsticks with a rest in a paulownia box, or a Nara kaya-cloth handkerchief.
The story
A tenugui is the plain cotton cloth Japan has carried for centuries: a towel, a headband, a gift wrap, a dish cloth. These are dyed in Hamamatsu, one of Japan's centres of chūsen dyeing. In chūsen, dye is poured by hand through stacked layers of cloth, so the colour soaks right through and the pattern shows on both sides. The edges stay a little soft, and no two cloths come out exactly alike.
The five patterns
Mount Fuji: in Japan, the luckiest first dream of the New Year is said to be Fuji, then a hawk, then an eggplant. Shippō: endless interlocking circles, named after the Buddhist seven treasures, for harmony and ties that do not break. Snowflakes: Edo-period townspeople fell in love with snowflake patterns after a lord published drawings of snow crystals seen through a microscope in 1832. Camellia: the tsubaki flowers in the middle of winter, when almost nothing else does. Goldfish: kingyo, the gold fish, a quiet wish for good fortune.
Living with it
Wrap a bottle or a small present instead of paper, hang one on the wall, or keep one in the kitchen. Give the set as it is, or split it: one for you, four for the people on your list.
The short ends are left raw, as tenugui always are: a few threads loosen in the first washes, then it stops. Trim them if you like. Wash separately in cold water the first time, as hand-poured dye can run a little.
• Five tenugui, about 34 × 90 cm each (87–90 cm, hand-dyed) • Cotton, chūsen-dyed in Hamamatsu • New • Made in Japan
How it travels
Packed safely, insured in full
Every piece is packed by hand in Fukuoka inside a sturdy 3 mm corrugated carton, cushioned all round with air pillows so it cannot move. It travels with tracking all the way to your door: by EMS, insured for its full value, on orders of $100 or more, and by tracked airmail below that.
A question about this piece — size, marks, condition? Ask the house, we answer within a day.