Noren

Saturday, 1 August 2009
暖簾：のれん
Noren are Japanese fabric dividers traditionally used by shops and restaurants in front of the entrance usually with their logo printed. It's not hard to find shops that hang Noren all over Japan, but usually traditional type shops use them.

The noren you see in the top photo is from a traditonal Japanese confectionery called "Toraya", and this particular shop of Toraya uses Noren very differently. It's probably about 6-7 meters wide and is working as a room devider/screen/front door/shop sign/curtains. It works so well! I love it when I enter the shop through this noren, somehow it feels very nice :)

The first 3 photos are found in Tokyo and the bottom five from my recent trip to Kanazawa.

You can also see a wonderful post on Noren here at ii-ne-kore. So check that out too!

17 comments

  1. Baron's Life1 August 2009 at 4:38 am

    Very fascinating

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  2. tommy1 August 2009 at 7:46 am

    Oh yes the toraya one is very clever!

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  3. Jeanne1 August 2009 at 8:07 am

    I agree with tommy - the long Toraya one is a great adaption of tradition!

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  4. Make it Easy1 August 2009 at 8:22 am

    niice! i like this collection :-)

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  5. Anonymous1 August 2009 at 11:09 am

    i've been meaning to visit toraya cafe in kyoto as i hear they've just remodeled the shop. thanks for reminding me of it with these beautiful noren shots! make me love japan even more.

    by the way, thank you for mentioning my blog in your last post. i really appreciate it. ;-)

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  6. Lynne2 August 2009 at 8:11 pm

    Hi there. I just wanted to let you know how very much I love your blog. Going to Japan was a life long dream of mine which I achieved last year. And it was even better than I could have imagined.

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  7. ii-ne-kore2 August 2009 at 9:04 pm

    what a great collection of noren (and link, arigatou!) and THANKYOU for the tennen seikatsu package - best thing ever!! and the kanazawa architecture map - wow!!!! i absolutely cannot say how great it is, so so so wnonderful. honto ni arigatou gozaimasu!

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  8. hiki3 August 2009 at 11:34 am

    Hi Baron's Life!
    Thank you, these are the sort that you like, ne ;)

    Hi tommy,
    Did you go visit this shop when you were in tokyo? I bet you did though! :)

    Hi Jeanne,
    Yes Toraya is wonderful. I think you will love their packaging too.

    Hi Aron,
    Arigato! ;)

    Hi aixxx-chan!
    Oh toraya has a new shop in kyoto? I didn't know and now i'm so curious!

    Hi Lynne,
    Thank you so much for your lovely comment!! It means so much to me. And it's so nice to hear that you enjoyed Japan so much :)

    Hi Bree,
    I must have been inspired by your noren post, all the noren photos came up each time I get my film developed! And I'm so happy that your package has arrived (it was quite fast!) and that you like the kanazawa machiya map :)
    kochira koso arigatou gozaimashita!

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  9. Fine Little Day3 August 2009 at 4:57 pm

    I like what I see here.

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  10. lovepics3 August 2009 at 11:37 pm

    i love n° 6 with the wide dots!
    is it linen?

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  11. Melanie4 August 2009 at 1:30 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Melanie4 August 2009 at 1:31 am

    gorgeous photos! i especially like the one with the bicycle!

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  13. at swim-two-birds4 August 2009 at 5:00 am

    i'm so in love with these japanese textiles and colour matches! they look linen, is it so?
    the pic with the bicycle is top:-)

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  14. hiki4 August 2009 at 7:14 pm

    Thank you Elisabeth and Melanie!

    lovepics and at swim-two-birds,
    I think that number 6 is definately linen, but others could be mixed with cotton. They are often made to be quite heavy duty since they directly get wind and rain.

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  15. 阪戸みほ　Miho Sakato5 August 2009 at 4:40 am

    amazing!!!

    コンニチハ。海外ブログ経由でやってきました！　楽しい〜☆

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  16. hiki5 August 2009 at 9:55 am

    美穂さんこんにちは。
    ありがとう！！！

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  17. nicole valentine don / little nicki1 September 2011 at 7:57 pm

    oh i love this! brings me such wonderful memories of visiting japan. i (inadvertently) posted my noren a few months ago:

    http://thetranscontinentalaffair.blogspot.com/2011/02/hey-me-too2.html

    i love them :)

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your kind words are always welcome and appreciated! arigato :)

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