Traditional towels get playful Ghibli twists on symbols of prosperity.

Tenugui are one of Japan’s seemingly simple, subtly significant cultural items. The term literally translates as “hand towel,” but that’s a humungous reduction of all the things tenugui have been used for.

Back in the old days, tenugui were a combination towel and wrapping cloth. People would use them to carry things like bento boxed lunches, and they were also a must-have item if you were headed to a hot spring or public bath, to dry yourself off with after your soak. As the patterns on tenugui became more and more appealing to the eye, they started being used to wrap gifts, wear as fashion items, or even hung as decorative tapestries inside homes.

While they retain an old-school, nostalgic aura, tenugui aren’t bound to strictly classical motifs. For example, Studio Ghibli specialty shop Donguri Kyowakoku is offering tenugui inspired by beloved anime Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.

Each of the cloths is 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) long by 34 centimeters wide, and is produced in partnership with Kamawanu, a tenugui design company that opened in Tokyo’s fashionable Daikanyama district nearly 40 years ago.

The above-pictured “World of the Mysterious Town” design, prominently featuring No Face, is sure to delight Spirited Away fans at any time of year. But with New Year’s approaching, Donguri Kyowakok has also restocked a pair of Ghibli tenugui with special good-luck imagery for the coming year.

The first of them features Totoro, specifically the Small Totoro, since his white fur is the same color as kagami mochi, the bulbous stacked rice cakes placed in Japanese homes at New Year’s as a symbol of prosperity and safety in the year to come.

▼ Non-Totoro kagami mochi

Kagami mochi are often topped with a mikan (mandarin orange), so this Totoro is too, and he sits upon a stand with a drawing of a Soot Sprite.

There’s more good fortune that could be sailing your way with the Spirited Away takarabune, or “treasure ship,” tenugui.

According to legend, over the first three days of the new year the Seven Luck Gods sail a ship filled with heavenly treasures into human ports. For this tenugui, though, it’s the cast of creatures from Spirited Away who are serving as ambassadors of auspiciousness, with No Face taking to the seas along with the Radish Spirit, green frog Aogaeru, two Otori-sama birds, and a pair of masked Kasuga-sama spirits.

Though technically towels, tenugui aren’t terrycloth, but instead smooth cotton. That gives them an extra elegant appearance when hung as decorations, allowing for light falling on them or shining through from behind to add to the richness of the colors.

That also makes tenugui lighter than regular towels of their size. These ones, for example, weigh only about 35 grams (1.2 ounces), so between that and their soft, foldable nature, they’re beautiful souvenirs that are extremely east to transport as gifts to friends and family.

Oddly, despite all three of these designs being of identical size and material, they’re all priced differently. The non-New Year’s World of the Mysterious Town is the priciest, at 4,400 yen (US$28), while the Totoro kagami mochi is 2,640 yen and the Spirited Away treasure ship 2,860 yen. Regardless of which you choose, though, they’re all available now thanks to a restock on the Donguri Kyowakoku online store (here, here, and here).

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2), Pakutaso, Donguri Kyowakoku (3)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!