Eggplant

茄子 nasu

Eggplant

Nasu puns on nasu 成す "to achieve", so it is a wish for success; eggplant is also the third lucky first dream of the year, after Mt Fuji and a hawk.

Early Edo period saying, Suruga/Edo

Eggplant became a lucky motif through the saying 'ichi Fuji, ni taka, san nasubi', the luckiest first dreams of the New Year: Mt Fuji, a hawk, then an eggplant. The saying dates to the early Edo period and appears in Bashō's poetry. One theory says these were the favourite things of Tokugawa Ieyasu; the usual explanation is the pun on nasu, 'to accomplish'.

Eggplant is a summer vegetable and an Obon offering (the eggplant ox), so it appears on summer textiles as well as New Year goods.

Technique catalog · draft for review

Every way to wrap, carry and wear a furoshiki.

The furoshiki.com archive, sliced into annotated steps with plain directions, plus techniques found in research.