August 28, 2012

Silk mufflers added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

We have added silk mufflers. You can enjoy small stripes dyed on the muffler. They are produced and hand-dyed in Kyoto, Japan. How about for Christmas present?


Tango chirimen muffler


The size of the muffler is approximately 165cm(Length) X 38cm(Width) (65 inches X 15 inches). We personally guarantee the high quality of the products.

We have a personal relationship with an authentic silk weaver in Kyoto. They produce high quality silk products. The factory is located in Tango of Kyoto (the area facing to Japan Sea) and the silk fabrics produced there have a brand name of  "Tango Chirimen". Tango Chirimen are thick, endurable but still soft.

Fabric industry in Tango has been lasting for 1,200 years since the Nara and the products were often presented to the Emperor at that time. Chirimen are woven from strings twisted 3,000 times per meter.  This chirimen production started about 280 years ago.

Just to show you Tango, the following photo is from a viewpoint of Tango. The sandbar is called Ama-no-hashi-date. The air is very clean, water is very nice, and the sea foods are very fresh! The tourist information in English is at: http://www.amanohashidate.jp/index_en.html





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August 25, 2012

Customized noren curtain

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

I would like to announce that we have set up a customized noren curtain website. We will print your design on a noren curtain.
We can make up any size noren. Long or extra wide noren are okay. Our noren artisans will make your original one. Our custom noren curtain will be all handcrafted in Japan.

A custom noren curtains is good for your shop/restaurant interior decoration.

If you are considering of making your own noren curtain, please have a look at our website:


Thank you for visiting our blog!



August 14, 2012

How Japanese noren door curtains could be helpful at western homes?

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

In September 2011, I uploaded an article in this blog about how a noren curtain would fit to a studio room in New York.  I would like to add more articles and photos as my proposals. I took these photos at a studio room and a single family apartment that I rent in New York City in 2011, 2012 and 2013. I applied noren to various places and corners of the apartment, and found a noren looked nice for the decor.  Furthermore, I have more to address based on cutomers' support in the past.

So, before starting my proposal, let me mention two things to avoid possible misunderstandings on the behalf of the people who are not familiar with noren curtains. At first, every noren curtain has a rod pocket on the top, and you can go through it a 2cm -3cm diameter rod for hanging. (And, please prepare a noren rod or curtain pole on your side.) Secondly, although a noren is called "a curtain",  it is not so much soft as it can be bunched up like a window curtain - a noren curtain is just a hanging cloth, and in a case, you will find it a hard textile (especially polyester or hemp).

Most often, the dimensions of the ready-made noren curtains are 150cm (59") -170cm (67") high and 85cm (33.5") wide for fitting into Japanese standard rooms, but I find these noren are still helpful and look nice at western homes. Please see the following demonstrations for room decorations.
The following presentation is for reference only, and final decision is up to you.



I would recommend to use a noren curtain at a bedroom hallway as a light partitioning. A noren will cut direct sights into bedrooms behind.








 









This is how it looked like from the bedroom side.




It was also nice to sectionalize a TV living room from a kitchen by hanging a noren. It added more private section sense to the room, and also the pink cherry blossom design looked great with the contrast to the white wall.










You can set a noren together with the door to hide the bedroom behind, and when you close the door the noren will turn into a nice tapestry on the wall as you can see below.


 




 
 
 
 


 
Another place I found nice was a window frame. You can use a noren instead of  blinds or still together with blinds. A noren curtain can be a decor at the window and it also prevent a sunshine reflection into the room.  Also, the center split of the noren will let wind come into the room gently.
Here let me add again that the noren cannot be bunched up at the curtain rod edge like an ordinary curtain. You need to lift up and close down the window from the center split of the noren.
 
The issue I noticed while taking this photo is that you might care about the noren width. There is room left at both sides of the window frame ^^);
 
















 



You could hang a noren curtain at an entryway.  I thought the noren gave warm touch  to a white concrete wall. Without a noren curtain, the room looked cut-and-dried.




If your room is happened to be messy when you a have sudden guest, a noren might help you. Your guest will probably pay more attentions on the design printed on a noren curtain instead!








My final proposal is to use a noren curtain in front of an entry door for keeping privacy in the room. The noren will cut a direct sight into your room.
 
I hope you get an inspiration and you will find your own way to utilize noren curtains  by reading my blog.








Hanging a noren curtain is easy. All you need is purchase a curtain rod at a home depot - a rod that can be adjusted by the width of a hallway or a window frame. We also sell a noren rod adjustable between 79cm-105cm  (31" to 41-5/16") . A rod pocket is already equipped on a upper side of a noren curtain, as I mentioned previously. 















I hope Japanese noren curtains will contribute to your room interior. A noren curtain is merely a cloth with a split in the center, but I believe that it can be helpful also at western homes and that wide varieties of  designs printed on the noren will add warm touch to your room.

 
Thank you for visiting our blog!

August 11, 2012

Bon-odori dance festival

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

If you are interested in traditional Japanese cultures, the Bon-odori folk dance festival might interest you.
Bon-odori dance is a memorial service for dead ancestors. Buddhists believe that the spirits of the dead revisit the world during Bon period, which is the week of August 15th. Many Japanese people take holidays during the week and go back to their hometowns for the event. Bon-odori dance festivals are held in neighborhoods everywhere in Japan, from July end to mid-August period. Bon-odori dance often starts in the evening, mostly after 6:00PM.

Last week I visited Bon-odori festival held at an old Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The temple is "Ikegami-Honganji" in Ota-ku, Tokyo.

Bon-odori dancers are lining up in a circle around a wooden scaffold called "Yagura". They dance forward anticlockwise. Bon-odori dancers are mostly women and they encourage visitors to dance as well.  The top of "Yagura" is a small bandstand where a man play the taiko drum to the music. Lanterns are decorated around Yagura.


Dancers wear Yukata. On the top of the bandstand, a man plays the drum.

Bon-odori music tempo is relatively slow.

In these days, Bon-odori festivals are more like regional summer events than religious events. If you happen to visit Japan during the term, anyone of you are welcome to join the festivals. The admission is of course free of charge.
But the problem is how can I find? Bon-odori festivals are often informed by posters and flyers in towns. They are all written in Japanese. If you have a Japanese friend or Japanese husband and wife, it's easy to find out. If you are a totally a stranger in town, I suggest you ask a hotel concierge to look for one around  the place where you are staying.  One of the travel difficulties in Japan is that very few passers-by speak English. It's best to ask a hotel concierge.

I find one website that summarises Bon-odori dance festivals in Tokyo but it is all written in Japanese. http://matsuri.enjoytokyo.jp/summer/bon/  (From my view point, the website still consolidates only major Bon-odori festivals information, so it is a subset. There should be lots more.)

Along the road, you will find many food stands who sell fried noodles, sweets and lollipops.


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August 9, 2012

Why customized noren curtains are demanded in Japan?

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

I would like to introduce customized noren culture in Japan to the world.

In Japan, there are certain amounts of demands for customized noren curtains. This is because many restaurants, shops and hotels hang their own noren curtains at entrances for appealing their names and logos. Original noren curtains are advertisements. This custom dates back presumably to the 13th century.

Following are examples of noren curtains at each shop entrance.


Japanese style hotel (Ryokan)

A shop of room interior

A public bath (sentou)

A Japanese bar and restaurant

A lumberyard

A ancient bank (money transfer)

A customized noren curtain usually costs 30,000JPY  (approximately $250 USD) or more, but this is considered to be an advertisement cost in Japan.

When a noren curtain is displayed at an entrance, it means that the shop is open. When a noren curtain is put away behind the entrance, it means the business hour is over.

Besides advertising mean, a noren curtain is helpful for preventing sunshine reflection and wind into a shop.



A noren curtain helps preventing strong sunshine reflection into a shop.

When you hang a noren curtain outside a shop, you need to hang it under an eave or an overhang roof. A long time exposure to direct sunshine will make a noren curtain degrade its color very quickly. You can expose a noren curtain to sunshine for a few hours a day, but all time exposure is not recommended.

Direct sunshine exposure should be limited within a few hours a day.

I hope more people in the world will try noren curtains for adding different atmosphere both at home and at shop.


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August 6, 2012

New tenugui and sensu added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

I have just added new sensu folding fans and tenugui on our website.


These sensu fans mainly for home decor are from an authentic Kyoto manufacture. Each one is 23cm length. How about adding Japanese taste to your home decoration?

The tenugui designs are base on Japanese folktales and flowers.

Crane lady folktale

A shining baby girl came to an elderly bamboo cutter couple and grew up to a princess.

Chrysanthemum


Grape vine

Morning glory

Balloon flower

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August 4, 2012

Slide shows updated

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

I have updated the slide shows in the top page of our website.
In this issue, let me talk about a lotus garden in Gyoda city and Bonsai tree nursery in Omiya city. (Both cities are located in Saitama prefecture adjacent to Tokyo.)

In 1973, ancient lotus seeds that were buried presumably for 1,400 to 3,000 years miraculously started to bloom after they were dug from soil by an incineration plant construction. The area was once a wetland covered by water plants 2,000 years ago and then lotus seeds were buried from crustal movements. These miracle seeds were gathered and were moved to the adjacent "Kodai-hasu (ancient lotus) park" in Gyoda city in Saitama prefecture. You can enjoy beautiful lotus flowers from the mid July to the beginning of August. To get there, please take Takasaki line (JR railway) from Tokyo, get off at Gyoda station and take a bus. You have to get to the park in the early morning to enjoy flowers because lotus flowers start to wilt in the noon.
The website of the park (Japanese written only) is :
http://www.ikiiki-zaidan.or.jp/kodaihasu/


Bonsai is an artificial planted tree contained in a pot. The Bonsai cultivation technique dates back in the 9th century. There live many Bonsai professional gardeners in Omiya, Saitama prefecture, approximately 30km north of Tokyo. The area is called "Bonsai-Mura" (literally Bonsai village). Many Bonsai professional gardeners migrated to this area from Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo they originally lived in to escape from the crucial damages caused by the huge earthquake occurred in 1923. The soil, water and fresh air were good for nurturing Bonsai trees. Usually, bonsai gardeners do not allow visitors to take photos to protect rights of likeness. However, I found a Bonsai gardener who generously allowed me to take photos to introduce Bonsai plantation to the world. To get there, please get off either at Omiya Koen station on Tobu Noda line or at Toro station on Utsunomiya line operated by JR railway.
The detailed destination map can be found at:
http://www.bonsai-art-museum.jp/english/sisetsu/access.php

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