The sixth and final installment of our Vegetable Series turns to a plant that many people in Japan recognize by its scent before they think of its name: igusa, or rush grass. Its slender stems are woven into the surface of tatami mats, and the fresh, grassy fragrance of new tatami is one of the quiet signatures of a Japanese room. Through vegetable paper and the hands of a Marugame artisan, igusa now takes another form, an uchiwa fan that brings a little of that tatami room into your hand. With this piece, the series that began with the onion comes to a close.
What Is Igusa? The Rush Grass Behind Tatami
Igusa is the Japanese name for soft rush (Juncus effusus), a grass-like plant that grows in wet ground. Its long, round stems are dried and woven into the facing of tatami mats, and into goza, the thin woven mats used for sitting on the floor. If you have stepped into a Japanese room and noticed a soft, hay-like smell, you have most likely already met igusa.
Igusa is not a vegetable in the kitchen sense, and that is part of why it closes this series. Vegetable paper is made from discarded parts of both vegetables and plants. Where the onion, the melon and the daikon came from the table, igusa comes from the floor beneath it, a plant valued not as food but as a material of everyday life.
A Sheet That Shows Its Fibers
Look closely at the paper and you will see what sets this fan apart. Across a pale, cream-colored ground, fine dark strands of plant fiber run in every direction, each sheet holding its own pattern. No two fans carry exactly the same arrangement, because the fibers settle differently every time the paper is formed. In one corner, a small green illustration of the rush plant and the word "IGUSA" quietly name the material.
Beneath the paper, thin strips of bamboo fan out from the handle, and a slim bamboo loop frames the lower edge of the face. The green-toned bamboo handle completes a palette drawn almost entirely from plants.
Artisan Takatoku Asano and the Marugame Tradition
This uchiwa is made by artisan Takatoku Asano, whose work also appeared in earlier installments of this series. Vegetable paper does not behave like uniform factory paper, and each sheet asks to be read before it is fitted to its bamboo frame. Asano-san matches paper and frame by hand, so the finished fan feels balanced in use, not only in appearance.
Marugame in Kagawa Prefecture has been the center of Japanese uchiwa making since the Edo period. The bamboo for this fan is sourced from around Marugame in Kagawa Prefecture. The red emblem on every package is issued by the Kagawa Prefecture Uchiwa Cooperative Association as proof that the fan was handmade in Japan. In 1997, Marugame Uchiwa was designated a Japanese Traditional Craft by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Size, Weight and Price
- Product: Vegetable paper "Igusa"
- Size: 310 x 165 mm
- Weight: 14 g
- Materials: Bamboo / Japanese paper (vegetable paper)
- Price: ¥6,050
At 14 g, it is light enough to carry in a bag through a long summer day. Because each fan is made by hand, the size varies slightly from one piece to another.
Closing the Vegetable Series
Over six installments, this series has followed the parts of plants that usually go unnoticed: the skin of the onion, the vines of the sweet potato, the rind of the melon, the husks of corn, the peel of the daikon, and now igusa. Each one became paper, and each paper became a fan shaped by the same Marugame craft. We hope that when you use this last one, the breeze carries a hint of a quiet tatami room, and a reminder that what we set aside often still has something to give.
Product Page:
https://marugameuchiwa.com/products/%E3%83%86%E3%83%B3%E3%83%97%E3%83%AC
