New tenugui added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

We have added new lineups of colorful tenugui hand towels. These tenugui's come from a manufacturer at Utsunomiya city in Tochigi prefecture. They dye tenugui manually by an old method called "Chusen" which can print the both sides of textile very beautifully.  This tenugui is called as Miya-zome. Please notice that many tenugui's sold at supermarkets are dyed only one side. We sell these beautiful tenugui's to worldwide with the same price as in Japan!

Also, we have updated the sub-category of tenugui a little for easier web navigation (I hope).

Please visit and a have look! http://www.nipponcraft.com/index_en_jpy_2.html

New lineup samples

Thank you!

Ume (plum) flower season now

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Starting to bloom now (Feb 8th, 2012)

Today, I would like to share the season information with you. Currently it is Ume flower season in Japan. Ume is a Japanese plum tree and its flower smells sweet and sour. Ume flowers begin to bloom in the mid February and continue to bloom through mid March. Ume flower season ends before the Sakura flower season arrives. However, due to the colder winter of this year, they have just started to bloom as you can see in the right photo. Ume trees look like ghost trees because the branches bend in many ways.We always look forward to seeing the Ume flowers because they are the sign of spring start.


There are two type of colors of Ume flowers - red (or pink) and white. Because the combination of red and white is a symbol of happiness and congratulation in Japan, the flowers are very much loved in this country.

Pink Ume

White Ume

A bush warbler on Ume tree

Also the combination of bush warblers and Ume trees are loved for the symbol of spring. You will find many bush warblers flying and singing on the Ume trees in this season. I inserted an arrow (in the above photo) to show you this combination, but I am sorry that my photo technique is so good enough to shot the bird in a bigger image.

I took these photos at Haneki Park in Setagaya, Tokyo. This park is famous for the plantation of many kinds of Ume trees. The park is quite close to Ume-gaoka station of Odakyu electric railway. 

Since Ume flowers are very common and the symbol of the spring after long winter in Japan, that's why Ume flowers are often picked up for the pattern of Furoshiki, Tenugui and Noren curtain.

 

Ume and bird tenugui

Thank you!

The temple where lucky cat (Maneki-Neko) originated

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As for the origin of lucky cats, there are some legends and one of the most popular is the explanation at Gotoku-ji temple in Setagaya borough (western part) of Tokyo.

Gotoku-ji temple entrance

I visited this temple to find out the story. This temple is located in the vast residential region of western Tokyo. The area of the temple is quite large with lots of gravestones and it is very quiet. At the temple, I saw several visitors (but not so many) looking for Manki-Neko legend. This temple is about 10 minutes walk from Gotoku-ji station of Odakyu railway ( http://www.odakyu.jp/ ) or more closely it is located at Miyano-saka station of Tokyu Setagaya line ( http://www.tokyu.co.jp/ ).

Famous lord Ii Naotaka is sleeping in

this temple

Many Maneki-Neko dedicated
to the temple

The legend goes that a priest's cat brought good luck to the poor temple back in the 1,600's. The priest of Gotoku-ji temple kept a cat and he loved it so much. In spite of his poverty, he shared his food with the cat. One day the priest told the cat to bring good luck to the temple in return of foods.  Days went by, a wealthy feudal lord called Ii Naotaka saw a priest's cat beckoning to come into the temple when he was on his way home after falconry hunting. So, he entered into the temple to have a rest and a moment later, a thunder storm struck. While Ii Naotaka was taking a shelter from the storm, the priest gave lessons to the lord.For giving thanks for all the accidental happenings, he contributed lots of land to the temple and the temple became prosperous.

If you buy a Maneki-Neko at the temple, you will get a piece of paper that explains all the origin. The paper is written in old style Japanese though.

Maneki-Neko from Gotoku-ji

A piece of paper explaining the origin of Maneki-Neko

Today, the largest production area of Maneki-Neko potteries is Tokoname in Aichi prefecture. http://www.tokoname-kankou.net/english/  In this area, the pottery production is very prosperous by utilizing the nice clay of the land. The people of Tokoname boast the No.1 production of Maneki-Neko.

Thank you!

1st Year Anniversary

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

Today (March 3rd) is our first year anniversary since we opened nipponcraft online store. We have started our online store for dealing several Japanese crafts that we think may be useful and beautiful also for international customers. The items we deal here come from traditional makers and artisans that are producing genuine crafts for years. We find these producers and products by visiting various places in Japan even in the era of Internet society.
It is a pity to find some fake products pretending as Japanese traditional crafts that are not made in Japan nor Japanese origin. It is my opinion that genuine crafts (especially traditional crafts)  should be the items produced in the country where they were born, because people in the country know the real culture, background and spirit of the products.

Showing our thanks of our 1st anniversary to international customers, we would like to present a small gift to all orders we receive during this March.

Hina-Matsuri painted tenugui handkerchief (Miya-zome chusen brand)

Today is also a special day for little girls. March 3rd is Hina-Matsuri day. Traditional families in Japan display a set of dolls for praying sound growth of their daughters. The Empress doll is believed to be a sacrifice (substitution doll) of a girl for avoiding bad lucks in her life. So, the doll cannot be passed to a daughter from a mother, nor sister to sister. One doll for each girl.

Hina-Matsuri Dolls set - they are displayed on terrace steps

Thank you!
Ken Yoshimura, the store manager

More Kanji norens added

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

We have added more kanji letter choices to the Kanji noren curtain series of our website. Now we have setup 68 letters in total. We try to represent each kanji letter in simple English words. A kanji letter usually has multiple meanings but we pick up the most representative meaning.
There are more than 1,000 kanji letters used in our daily life in Japan, but we don't know how much more we can add choices in our website. Maybe our goal is 100 in total. I hope you could find your favorite letters from the sets.

By the way, it is snowing in Tokyo today. We don't have much snows in Tokyo usually. The railway trains are delayed due to the snow. The train system is often confused by snowy weather in Tokyo.

Thank you!

Some kanji letters newly added

Sky kanji letter

Moon kanji letter

Water kanji letter

Japanese Yen weaken

Hello and welcome to www.nipponcraft.com,

It may be a good news for global customers that the Japanese Yen has got weaken slightly against major currencies. Since the listed prices on our website are Japanese Yen, it is preferable for overease customers that Yen is weak against dollars and euros. As of today, 1USD=79Yen and 1EURO=105Yen. Yen got weaken slightly since February 14th, when the minister of Bank of Japan stated the goal of inflation target of 1% of Japanese economy. He was pushed hard by some politicians to take the roll of turning the Japanese economy into inflation. I hope the Yen will continuously get weaken.

Thank you!

Origami papper

Hello and Welcome to www.nipponcraft.com

Origami is the Japanese washi paper for fold-and-play. You can turn origami into many kinds of animals and flowers as you can see in the photo below.  (A Nipponcraft staff created a crane, a horse, a dog, a rose, a morning glory, and a armor helmet. ) These techniques can be found in various web sites by keyword search of origami. Origami would be not only for children's education but also good for brain exercise to keep it healthy and young!

Origami folding arts

Origami paper : Chiyogami brand from Kyoto

Thank you!