What A Neat Idea,

when giving a friend a gift,

how many times is the gift wrapping thrown away? this gave the Kanda Budo Orchards in Rikuzen Takada in Japan an idea, the company is a family-run vineyard that dates back to 1905,

and by sheer happenstance in the next  prefecture of Iwate is the Tomoe Senko, a dye company which has its roots back in 1908,

with a combined 230 years of history under their belts, the two organizations decided to produce a gift set featuring wine wrapped in a chusen-dye tenugui tea towel that conveys the history and roots of the two artisanal producers, 

the collaboration came together thanks to Manorda Iwate, a local company specializing in facilitating commerce through design and craft. Art director Kenichi Suzuki was brought on to oversee the project, which resulted in a series of wine and non-alcoholic juice wrapped in a tenugui tea towel,

 “Shi-Ki” (four seasons) the gift set will only be carried by local retailers Kawatoku Ichibankan (Morioka), Liquor court Prost (Morioka Station), and LaLa Iwate Morioka, what a neat idea, a fully useable gift wrapping, I wonder if collaborations like this will start a worldwide trend of using gift wrappings that can be used in their own right?