tenugui | Photographer: Dietrich Graf | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Tenugui are everyday objects and souvenirs with a regional reference. They are offered in many places, especially in the onsen spring towns, and their design is often characterised by references to local traditions and events. In this case to the poet 松尾芭蕉 Matsuo Bashô, who undertook a "north country journey" through Japan at the end of the 17th century and described stations of his journey in diary form. The inscriptions refer to this: on the right, a text from the 5th part of his travel notes entitled おくのほそ道 (Oku-no hosomichi ), in the centre a haiku short poem with the name "Bashô" at the end. At the bottom left, surrounded by a circle like a seal, 2 lines:平泉 中尊寺 , the name of the place and temple: Hiraizumi Chûson-ji. (Siegmar Nahser 2008).
