Oshibori
Encyclopedia
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is a wet hand towel
Towel
A towel is a piece of absorbent fabric or paper used for drying or wiping. It draws moisture through direct contact, often using a blotting or a rubbing motion. Common household textile towels are made from cotton, rayon, bamboo, nonwoven fibers or a few other materials.-Types of towels:* A bath...
offered to customers in places such as restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s or bars in Japan and in Japanese restaurants worldwide. Oshibori are used to clean one's hands before eating, and have long been a common sight in Japan. Cold oshibori are used in summer, and hot oshibori in winter. In mah-jong parlors, the words atsushibo and tsumeshibo, from the Japanese words , hot, and , cold, are sometimes used to refer to hot and cold oshibori respectively.
Derivation of word
The word oshibori comes from the Japanese word , meaning "to wring", specifically the , with the polite prefix o, which is added to several types of nouns, including many nouns related to washing or food; onigiriOnigiri
, also known as or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori . Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume , salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative...
/omusubi (お握り、握る and お結び、結ぶ) "rice ball" follows the same pattern – see honorific prefix usage. In Japanese script, the word oshibori is normally written in hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
(おしぼり), seldom using kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
(お絞り or 御絞り).
Oshibori are also known as otefuki; tefuki refers to ordinary handkerchiefs, and these derive from the Japanese (hand) and , to wipe.
Typical oshibori
A typical oshibori, made of cloth, is dampened with water and wrung. It is then placed on the dining table for customers to wipe their hands before or during the meal. The oshibori is often rolled or folded and given to the customer on some kind of tray. Even if a tray is not used, it is usually rolled up into a long, thin shape, although this is not necessarily the case with oshibori provided with, say, bentōBento
is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware...
lunch boxes.
Many establishments also give out towels made of non-woven
Nonwovens
Nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from long fibres, bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabrics, such as felt, which are neither woven nor knitted. Nonwoven materials typically lack...
cloth or paper, which are generally used once and then disposed of. Paper ones sometimes contain a sterilizing agent such as alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
or stabilized chlorine dioxide
Chlorine dioxide
Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula ClO2. This yellowish-green gas crystallizes as bright orange crystals at −59 °C. As one of several oxides of chlorine, it is a potent and useful oxidizing agent used in water treatment and in bleaching....
. Paper oshibori, unlike cloth oshibori, can be folded and put into a very thin plastic wrapping, for inclusion with packaged products such as bentō
Bento
is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware...
lunch boxes in convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
s.
Hot and cold oshibori
An oshibori can be moistened with hot water at an appropriate temperature or steam to make a hot oshibori, or placed damp into a refrigerator to make a cold oshibori suitable for use in summer. Sometimes in Europe it is more commonly known as Hot Towel. Restaurants usually use an electric appliance such as a heating cabinet or refrigerator for this. The heated towel used in barberBarber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
's shops to moisturize the skin
Skin
-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...
or beard
Beard
A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck of human beings. Usually, only pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. However, women with hirsutism may develop a beard...
and make it easier to shave can also be thought of as a type of oshibori.
Rented oshibori
As many establishments use oshibori in large quantities, they often do not prepare them in the store, but instead employ a rental service which launders them, rolls them into the typical cylindrical shape, and delivers them already damp. These rental service companies services frequently wrap each oshibori individually in a clear, lightweight plastic seal (polyethylenePolyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...
film), which can be easily broken and removed by the customer before using.
Disposable Oshibori
Now many places offer a disposable form of oshibori. These towels are individually wrapped and pre-moistened and even come in different scents.
Oshibori Dispenser
Now some beauty salonBeauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women...
s and dental
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
clinic
Clinic
A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...
s prefer to use a standalone oshibori dispenser, with which a freshly made towel is manufactured at the client's request. In this case, the towels are often made of a nonwoven fiber.