Furoshiki tsutsumu musubu 風呂敷活用法 1

風呂敷ってお家に必ずあるけど、意外と使い方知らない。最近はおしゃれ風呂敷がいっぱい！包んで、結んで、活用法が広がってきてる。

Almost all Japanese family have Furoshiki at home but people don't really know how to use them.

風呂敷という名前のように”お風呂で自分の荷物を包んでおく”、そんな使い方が一般的になったのは意外と遅くてやっぱり江戸時代から（江戸時代に色々なものが大衆化されていて、いかに活気のあった時代か分かる気がする！）。古く記述に残っているのは奈良時代。この頃は風呂敷という名前ではなくて、裹（つつみ）と呼ばれる麻の布に紐がついたようなものだったそう。

As the name of Furo (Bath) Shiki (Sheet), when people started to use furoshiki to put their clothes in to take a bath was only from Edo era. (It seems like many things became common from this Edo era and perhaps in this period, Japanese people were much more vigorous than before.) The oldest document about furoshiki was from Nara era. It was called "Tsutsumi" (probably coming from the verb "Tsutsumu", which means wrap or cover) and made from hemp cloths.

風呂敷といえば、包んで、結んで使うものだけど、その”包む”、”結ぶ”にもいい意味があってそういう言葉も大切にしたい日本語だと思う。例えば「包」は元々おかあさんのお腹にいる赤ちゃんからできた漢字。結ぶ＝むすぶ＝産す（むす）、つまり何かを産み出す。風呂敷はそういう意味を持った言葉と共に使われるものなんだって。

When you use Furoshiki, you'll wrap (Tsutsumu) and tie or knot (Musubu). The letter ”包” Tsutsumu is expressing a baby in mother's body. Musubu means producing new things. So furoshiki is the thing we use with these nice words and I believe we should cherish these Japanese words with good meanings.