Todaya Shoten Kabuki Classics Pattern Design Kamawanu Chusen Tenugui Towel

Tenugui delivered very quickly. Made by Toda-ya Shōten [戸田屋商店] (aka Rienzome after their dying process) a company originating in 1872.This tenugui is slightly larger than standard sizing, being about 5 inches longer and 2 inches wider than common.Both sides are equally dyed, having the same intensity of color, no front or back side. It is the rienzome dyeing [梨園染] process that makes equal dyeing on both sides of the fabric possible.Nice fabric, I'd judge as a bit finer than most lower priced tenugui, but not as thick / as high thread count - as the Hamamon'yō tenugui [濱文様（はまもんよう）手ぬぐい] “Wakaba” fabric. [生地わかば ・生地若葉] tenugui..The pattern is an old pattern from what I have read a motif pattern taken from a book hundreds of years old. A pattern made popular when it was worn by early 1800s kubuki actor Ichikawa Danjūrō VII (七代目 市川 團十郎）when he played the character Yoemon in the theater play "Kasane no Yoemon". 「かさねの与右衛門」. A character that murdered two other characters with a sickle.