KISS Principle Tenugui

The Tenugui or "Hand Wiper" towel is a very Traditional Accessory in Japan, they were first used around the Heian era, 794 to 1192 A.D Basically a multi-tool Hand towel, wrapped as a kind of hat against the sun, Bandits hat a particular way of using them as a face mask, sometimes they are used instead of a Furashiki which is a kind of Gift wrapping made of textiles and reused. or as a kind of bag. In the martial Arts such as Kendo or Kenjutsu they are wrapped around the head and also for drying the hands. They are so popular in Japan that when you see a gift shop apart from postcards you would likley see Tenugui as well. Usually they are patterned as above but can also be plain or with Kanji. I belong to the Natori Ryu Samurai School (http://www.natori.co.uk/start-here.html The HQ is in England but they have members all over the place) and wanted a Tenugui with our kanji and the Kamon / Mon which is the schools Emblem.

Thin plain weave cotton material

Printed Kanji with Kamon

Thicker Paper or carton

Pencil

Edding Textile Marker

Scalpel

Sewing Maschine

Tenugui are generally made of plain weave cotton, Terry Cotton is also seen. They are about 35 x 90cm (14 x 35 in).

I used plain white and someone was kind enough to do the seams for me. A traditional Tenugui is only seamed on the long sides the short sides are left, which on the one side makes it eventually fray but on the other side this add to the Traditional value. The reason is it is supposed to dry quicker like this.

I printed the school Kanji and Kamon simply on my printer in A4

I placed the Kanji pattern on the thick paper and laid the Tengui on them keeping a central and about 1.5cm or inch from the top. Then I used the Pencil to trace the form through the material.

Once the Tracing was done I pulled out carefully the Printed Kanji and placed it to the side. Then I used the Textile Edding to Blacken out the pattern, note that this is a pen specially for Textiles this means you can wash it too.

But it might look good if you use an normal Edding/Sharpy but I don´t know if it can be washed or if so how long the "colours" stay...

It was quiet easy to blacken the kanji the hardest was the Kamon but if you look at the picture of the print out and the finished Tenugui I think it worked out fine. You are probably wondering what the scapel was for, well nothing, I origionally wanted to use the Tone paper as a stensill and cut out the shapes with the scapel, My wife noticed that the material was quiet see through and made the good suggestion of tracing. So if you use a material which is not see through you could use this method and lay the stencill on the Tenugui and blacken it out that way. Which ever way you use I wish you have fun