Saturday. Officially we would have had classes, however we needed the time for organizational matters especially concerning the upcoming days to form groups, assigning local students and managing hotel room. Joram, Sorn and i formed the group Flying Fish, while the girls containing Celine, Pam, Antonia and Maria formed the group Frying Pan. After lunch we attended a course about Furoshiki.
Furoshiki has a long history dating back at least 1300 years ago. Originally known as tsutsumu, which means “to wrap,” it was used to protect and conserve valuable objects, including the treasures of the imperial household. Over time, between 1200 and 700 years ago, it came to be known as koromo tsutsumi, or “kimono wrapping,” as aristocrats began using furoshiki to wrap their precious cloths while traveling. Later around 600 to 350 years ago, Furoshiki has been adopted by the Japanese aristocracy to wrap their cloths while taking a steam bath (furo). Each lord would use a cloth featuring their family crest and spread it out (shiki) to sit on, hence the name Furoshiki. Around 350 years ago, public baths began to become more popular. As more people began using the furo (bath), the practice of using furoshiki to wrap their clothes also became more widespread. As a result, the use of furoshiki became more popular and the name became more widely recognized. Now since it is both useful and eco-friendly it started to gain more and more importance in todays culture. (This information has been taken partly from my own notes and from zusetsu.com, some information was slightly contradictionary, and i chose to believe my own notes)
The very basic knot is the Ma Mosubi.
If it is done right, it is locked hard, but will open easily if you intend to.
The cloth used for Furoshiki usually bears some meaning:
- pink: goes with the theme of a couple or friendliness
- a fish or carp climbing up the waterfall and changes to a dragon: methaphor for a good business
- Dragonflies: Are respected because they eat other insect on a rice field. Furthermore they only fly forward and never backwards, which also stands for a successful business
- hamp: grows fast and tall, attributes parents wish for their children
After classes, our group of international students visited Kofu station again, this time to see Kofu Castle, which was vanquished during the Meiji Restoration. For dinner, our teacher took us to a local Okonomiyaki restaurant. Apparently, the current seasonal ingredient was oyster, which I readily chose for my Okonomiyaki. After the meal, we coincidentally encountered an ice cream truck, which instead of selling ice cream sold fresh steamed sweet potato – yummy.
