Ise Shrine & 25th Maneki-neko Festival – 1/2
On September 28th (Saturday) and 29th (Sunday), I visited the Maneki-Neko Festival (Beckoning Cat and Lucky Cat Festival) held in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, wher...
Just Relaunched IROHASHOP!!
After a long hiatus we are now finally ready to announce the reopening of our IROHASHOP online store! As you will realize when you enter, we have completely cha...
Lovely Wallet of Manekineko, Beckoning Cats!
I found a lovely wallet of Manekineko in Nara, Japan. Made of raven-black and lustrous leather, the inside the wallet is formed of yellow cloth and manekineko p...
On a sunny Autumn day – 1
On a sunny Autumn day, I made an impromptu visit to Gotokuji (豪徳寺) which is said to be the Birthplace of Manekineko (beckoning cat). During the Edo era, there w...
On a sunny Autumn day – 2
While I stared out the window on the train, I was quietly pondering that I never had time to visit Gotokuji even though I’ve been blessed by the Manekineko more...
Tenugui, a Japanese towel
The main character in the Soseki Natsume’s novel Botchan took a red western style tenugui whenever he went to a hot spring, which is why he was called aka...