The Japanese art of gift wrapping

Unfortunately, for many of us in the western world, Christmas these days is all about the presents, particularly if children or grandchildren are involved! And therefore that often means there is then mountains of paper gift wrapping to dispose of in the recycling bin.

Today we will take a look at the Japanese art of gift wrapping. It will be shown to us by Yoko Nakazawa, courtesy of ABC Everyday.

Yoko Nakazawa grew up wrapping her bento boxes with her mother using furoshiki, a traditional square piece of cloth, which can be reused by the gift recipient and saves on paper. (Yoko grew up in Japan, but now lives in Melbourne Australia, and runs her own small business called "Cooking with Koji").

In this 6 minute video, she shows us how to wrap all sorts of difficult shapes, such as wine bottles and round tins etc, including some practical ties to decorate or carry your gift.

It’s a very restful video, and I hope it provides you with some inspiration next time you have a present to wrap!

The Japanese art of wrapping
Yoko Nakazawa grew up wrapping her bento boxes with her mother using furoshiki, which is a traditional Japanese patterned cloth used to wrap items.

Footnotes

With thanks to ABC Everyday, Australia. abc.net.au/everyday