Tawashi's are typical scrubbing brushes in Japan. They are being manufactured for centuries from organic materials. We visited 中西富一工房 (https://shuro-tawashi.jp/?mode=f3) to get a better inside into their origin and production.
Tawashis are made from the windmill palm tree called shuro. It is a tall evergreen palm with an elastic and highly water resistant bark. While the tree itself grows in Japan, in the last years the material has been mainly imported from China, due to the decrease profitability in harvesting it locally and the increase in plastic products. However, 中西富一工房 recently started new collaborations to cultivate and harvest the material locally, in Wakayama, making it a very eco-friendly product.
Harvesting the bark require a lot of skills, since first the outer layer of the tree has to be removed. Only few people are still able to do this and this process is only possible every 10 years, letting the tree regenerates.
The raw material then has to be flattened, dried, sorted and bundled. The bundles are then cut in smaller chunks of 3-4cm thickness.
19g of shuro are needed for the production of one Tawashi. The material is clamped between wire which is then spirally turned until it is so tense that it forms a tube like shape.
The tube is then bend into its typical shape, fixated and finished.
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