HOSOTSUJI IHEE Museum

Highlight

1932 logo mark showing amazing design sense

The spirit of this long-established company can be seen in the hand towel designs

Founded in 1615 as a fabric business, this company supplied Japan with many styles of tenugui (hand towels) from the Meiji to Showa periods. Notably, in the early part of the Showa period, the company formed the Hyakuiro-kai, a group with the aim of designing a hundred or more differently patterned towels, which lead to craftsmen competing to make the best designs; consequently, causing a buzz among towel lovers across Japan.
The 2nd floor of the head office has a gallery where some 60 types of original towels from those heady days are exhibited in frames. All of them show the technical prowess, artistic sense and superb humor of those yesteryear craftsmen.
Meanwhile, in the 1st floor store, more than 300 types of towels, including reprints of the old originals, are on sale.