The crafting of an enterprise is like painting on a blank canvas. There are many elements and tools to consider in making a masterpiece. For my arts and crafts shop J Travel Finds, I focused on Japanese goods because its perception of being top tier quality. Aside from intricate attention to the last detail, these crafts are held to highest standards because Japanese customers can be quite finicky. Customer is not even king but a god. After nearly two years of my entrepreneurial “masterpiece”, my first key learning is that Japanese businesses keep up to this demand through a subtle consistency that permeates in little actions that make up the big picture. This is why my relationships with Japanese business have flourished. There are no grey areas in our transactions. The second reason why these relationships have blossomed is because of my intuitive luck in meeting dynamic Japanese partners who are wiling to work with foreigners and be flexible enough to sidestep the tedious traditional protocol. In doing so, we are able to dilute trends that tarnish the status of Japanese craftsmanship and even elevate it higher.
Preserving the Provenance of Japanese Pottery: MA by So Shi Te
MA by So Shi Te is an 18 year old arts and crafts shop by Shiro Kofune. I was initially attracted to his business because of his magnetic smile on his Instagram posts that beamed with an authentic joy for sharing pottery. This hunch turned out to be true as I read his weekly blog explaining the artisan stories behind each of his products. On November 2022, we eventually met in his Tokyo shop near the famous Ginko trees of Gaienmae. He was authentically enigmatic offline as he explained the origins of the demon sake cup I ordered. This knowledge was quintessential in our partnership because of the threat of Japanese surplus goods in the Philippines. There are many social media sellers undermining the value of pottery with bowls as cheap as a 100 pesos. By educating customers of each piece’s provenance, we can preserve the artisan’s integrity.
As Shiro studied in the UK and his market caters to tourists, he is more transparent with foreigners like myself and this is a cornerstone of our partnership. Our relationship is an outlier because the norm is to have an endorsement prior to starting any business. As such, the flexible dynamic I have with Shiro is something I cherish. It is especially as he took on a chance on my business when it was still a mound of unsculpted clay. For his blind gamble, I am indebted in pursuing the preservation of Japanese arts and crafts.
Bringing traditional crafts to the modern with wit and grace: Nakani Dyeing Factory
Nakani Dyeing Factory in Osaka’s Sakai city is a 59 year old company that focused on chusen tenugui cloth. This hand dyed fabric has a standard size of 35 x 15 inches and soon became my flagship product. It was due to its versatility in both use and design. The cloth is like a blank canvas. It is up to your imagination decide what you can do with it. It can be a table runner, a bandana and even a scarf. This inventiveness led me to purchase tenugui from various companies. Nakani’s inhouse tenugui brand Nijiyura unsuspectingly caught my eye for its modern wit. It was different from the usual designs that featured Hokusai’s Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Their designs focused on specific companies, festivals and places in the Kansai area while still being accessible to an outsider’s eye. Their cloth is even folded into little kimonos and crepe. With this creative push, their brand philosophy aligned with mine as I wanted to shift the infantilization of Japan’s public image into a more modern one. Western media, including the Philippines, tend to box in Japanese with the usual stereotypes. They are either seen as unwavering Edo period samurai or cosplaying oddities. Yet, the truth is that present day Japanese don’t wear the kimono as often as perceived. Through the tenugui, I wish to convey the charm of Japanese living in 2025. This led me to unsuspectingly buy more of their tenuguis than other brands.
As I was constantly hounded by Filipino consumers if I made any of the tenugui I sold, I was pressured to make the first Philippine tenugui. I soon scouted for companies to partner with and Nijiyura was on the top of my list. My key priority was to have this process documented for marketing purposes. When I emailed Nakani Dyeing Factory, our communications were surprisingly smooth as I was a small entity reaching out to the 2nd biggest tenugui company in Japan. Upon reflection, it was previous bulk purchases that unknowingly made it easier as I gained a reputation among their staff.
When I met Nakani’s CEO Hiroki Naka last January, I was embraced with an open tour during their first working day of the year. My favorite tenugui designer Adachi Sachi even welcomed me with treats from Osaka and her own handmade postcard. These gestures solidified that I made the right partnership and that an openness to foreign collaboration can be fruitful.
Reframing the Tenugui in the Philippines and Japan
Last March, I launched my first Filipino tenugui featuring Sagada city’s iconography and coffee culture. It sold well as the motif resonated with Filipino consumers during the Manila Coffee Festival. Leading up to the event, I was presenting to local institutional champions from both the Philippine and Japan side. From the Filipino side, certain gatekeepers were not impressed as they were expecting Manila/Western centric ideas such jeepney, lechon, and local weaves. It was seen as not being Filipino enough. Yet, I believe that the Tinagtago nature spirit on the tenugui is Filipino but its iconography just has not entered mainstream consciousness. As such, it should be popularized before its story fades away. On the end of Japanese expats in Manila, the tenugui is seen as an everyday item and considered as a giveaway. It hasn’t entered the realm of high art.
With these challenging perceptions, I am not rattled because of how comic books have been elevated into sequential art and placed in galleries. With the tenugui, I wish to do the same and return its appreciation as a legitimate tapestry. Currently, I found several institutional champions. One is Japan Foundation’s Yuko Fujimitsu for giving me a platform to present the tenugui during their Nihongo Fiesta held in Shangri-la Edsa mall. From this event, I linked up with Japan Language Society of Malaysia’s Ed Lee. He invited me for an online tenugui talk for his JL Fest 2025.
The cloth is like a blank canvas. It is up to your imagination decide what you can do with it.
Last July 19, the 2nd Filipino tenugui with Jomike Tejido was released during Celestials exhibit at Art Lounge Manila. As this artist works with various mediums, he was a match to jump into a new space. We designed a party palayok to maximize the tenugui’s verticality. Moreover, the objective of this release was to reframe this craft as gallery worthy. I was grateful for Daily Manila Shimbun for providing newspaper coverage.
The second phase will be the first tenugui exhibition in the Philippines and showcase the breadth of my collection. It will include legacy artworks, corporate designs and packaging that push the boundaries of this medium. It was displayed at the UP Asian Center this August 18th until the 23rd. After, the goal is present the Palayok tenugui locally at Fundacion Sanso and Museo Pambata. Then, it can be exhibited in Japan through DTI Osaka’s SME Showcase and Nijiyura’s tenugui cafe. These plans all sound very ambitious and bothersome. Yet, the foundation of all this work is gratitude with the bridges formed the last two years with Shiro and Hiroki. Our friendship and my learnings from them is what fuels me to elevate a craft beyond my own blood and preserve it for generations to come.
Jan Vincent Sarabia Ong is owner of J Travel Finds, an online shop for art finds from his travels. He is a tenugui cloth advocate through giving talks, curating exhibits, designing tenugui, and having pop ups at art markets. He is currently developing a Filipino tenugui using local materials. You can know more about Filipino tenuguis at www.filipinotenugui.com.
