3.c Pragmatic and symbolic wrapping

The wrapping for objects to be given as gifts is usually commercial wrapping with pre-printed noshigami (figure 1) with a single layer of wrapping that does not conceal the gift. More ritualised occasions such as weddings have more layers of wrapping paper, and wrapping cloths. Gifts from friends, visiting, have personalised wrapping that imitates or enhances the quality of the gifts. A box of chestnut rice cakes, for example, is wrapped in chestnut leaves, and cords that imitate wine patterns. Most service and casual offerings from shops are wrapped in plastic boxes, rewrapped several times in paper and placed in plastic bags. On most occasions, the decision to wrap a gift is not taken by the giver but by the shop, who considers it a complimentary service (see Chapter Three). Despite the importance of wrapping, occasional donations of small prestations are handled without wrapping; mochi (rice cakes) are thrown to their recipients with no layering of wrapping papers. Occasionally, some givers place the mochi in plastic bags (Chapter Three).

Wrapping cloths are as important aspects of gift wrapping as papers. The main wrapping cloth is furoshiki (bath cloth), also created in the Edo period. Furoshiki is a large square piece of cloth, for spreading out or wrapping one’s purchase or anything of any size: books, bottles, or cakes. Hendry argues that it was orignally used to wrap and carry one’s clothes at communal baths (Hendry 1987). Other pieces of cloth for wrapping are Shrine and household cloths with crests, towels, hachimaki and tenugui (headbands),kimono, tapi jackets, and white gloves and white socks. Lee (1984) argues that the furoshiki define the attitude to wrapping in Japan. It shows the ‘eastern preference for flexibility’ (in Hendry 1986: 218). However, wrapping cloths of the furoshiki kind are also found in western societies. In Catalonia, for example, a cotton cloth, of similar size to furoshiki, called farcell, is still used for the weekly shopping and for carrying all sorts of things and gifts.[13] The use of these items of wrapping in Japan and other industrialised societies has gradually changed, with a growing intensification of wrapping materials such as plastic bags and commercial wrapping (Hendry 1995: 23), although furoshiki was much used in Kamikatsu and Tokushima.

As Hendry argues, wrapping accomplishes both pragmatic and symbolic uses. It represents one of the principles of ‘pragmatic meaning’ about the self and human relations (Hendry 1997, Bachnick1986, Oka 1975). Folding paper, ropes, cloth and clothes are perceived as things most people should know and be good at, being a source of pragmatic knowledge rather than an intellectual construct.

During a festival, Tomizaki, one of my hosts said to me: ‘You want to learn about wrapping, don’ t you. I will teach you’. He took a furoshiki cloth he had used to bring his food. With the furoshiki in hand he took a bottle and wrapped it. ‘You can also wrap two bottles together, anything of any shape’ - and he proceeded to wrap each object on the table. ‘This is how we do it’. When I tried it, he guided my hands. He was amused and disappointed when I could not reproduce the same process on my own. I could understand the process of wrapping but the knowledge of wrapping was not in my hands. However, for him and most people around the process was obvious, wrapping was an embodied process. It was learned at school from an early age, and in many actions of folding food, books and gifts.

Learning about wrapping meant learning the actions of folding, and the process of creating shape, the final aesthetic look of the bundle. Wrapping can be seen as the expression of emotions, intertwined with ideas that see wrapping as a ritual prestation itself. Wrapped papers and strings of folded papers are often offered as prestations for deities and for auspicious and inauspicious occasions (such as weddings and funerals). The symbolism of wrapping as a process of enclosing, concealing, blurring and protecting is enacted upon pragmatic principles. Wrapping encompasses considerations of both pragmatic meaning or ‘praxis’, and symbolic exchange among people and deities.

[13] Farcell is mostly used in rural areas. It was a highly popular carrying method at the turning of the century, until gradually multipurpose bags took over. In the areas where it is used farcell is said to be very useful for two reasons. First it is practical for carrying virtually anything, it is strong, and flexible –similar reasons found in Japan. Second, it hides the shopping. As my informants argued, plastic bags are not good for concealment, thus, they maintain the use of furoshiki, which hides the contents. With farcell, they can simultaneously buy in many shops while maintaining a sense of continuity and loyalty. Other wrapping cloths like ‘bosses de pa’ (bread bags) have followed similar patterns, although bread bags are still much more popular among young people than farcell. (My own research. Unpublished). It must be noted that unlike the Japanese, Catalan people prefer direct verbal communication, they do not to use polite constructions and gossip is much preferred forms of communication for.