Furoshiki - Japanese traditional cloth -

September 25, 2008 | Staff Essay

by: Shoko Sugasawa

Hello, everyone.I'm Shoko Sugasawa, a writer of staff Essay in the Eco-Navigator.

This year in 2008, will be the 10th Anniversary for Eco-Products Exhibition.
I like to introduce you to eye-catching eco-friendly products and services from Eco-Products Exhibition, and ongoing green news in Japan.

Today's topic is "Furoshiki", Japanese traditional cloth for wrapping.
Why is Furoshiki considered as eco friendly products?　Furoshiki can be used again and again, and it became public limelight where Japanese are worrying about using unnecessary wrapping from stores..

One of the amazing things about Furoshiki is that it requires your free imagination to make it work. From 1 cloth, you can wrap a broad range of things in various of shapes . You can devise creative way to wrap things by changing the fold or tie them up.
With Furoshiki, even bottles in different sizes can be wrapped up like this!

I wrapped these bottles by myself.

After undoing knots, it can be fold into compact and easy to carry Furoshiki.
So some people in Japan carry them as Eco-bags.In this web site, you can find creative ways to wrap with Furoshiki. I'm sorry it's only in Japanese, but you can see them by clicking small photos.
http://www.kakefuda.co.jp/furoshiki/index.html

Some people use Furoshiki even for babies!

Photo:Kakefuda Kyoto

I think Furoshiki is eco-products with significant features, it has capabilities to stimulate people's imagination by using it.

Here are my thoughts about eco-products:
When you feel inconvenience in your life, please think about things you have now instead of buying new products. When you buy new products, please imagine about how these products can change your life and make an impact to the world.

To realize sustainable society, imagination is one of most important thing.
Please arouse your imagination while reading this blog.
And if you get interested in Japanese eco-products, why don't you come Eco-products Fair?
We're looking forward to sharing eco-products info from all over the world with you at Tokyo Big Sight!