(photo: Japanese festival-2 by markinjpn)

Is it too shocking the picture? Or you have already seen these manly under wears? It is called “Fundoshi” Japanese traditional underwear for guys. Nowadays, most of the people put this just for festival like that. I can bet that the guys on this picture put the m just for this big day. Fundoshi is a long piece of clothe with strings on both side. It can be 1m to 3m long. Before the World War 2, it was normal underwear to almost all the men, but after the war, western fashion came to Japan and slowly, the number of people who use Fundoshi gets lower.  Today’s topic is, now this Fundoshi gets more and more popular again. The interesting part is, it gets popular amoung girls.

 

(photo: fundoshi- 2 by markinjpn)

 

Well, that is how it looks like from front. Why it gets popular in girls? The one thing is, it doesn’t have any elastic inside. So it is perfect underwear to sleep or relax time. I have never tried so I can’t say for sure, but underwear without elastic, hmm, sounds relaxing for sure. Another thing is, it is believed that Fundoshi brings a good fortune for you. So the manufactures try to sell to the students who have big exams soon, or the one who looks for love for long time. Mr. Nakagawa, the president of Fundoshi association in Japan says on his interview October 2011. «I am not against western underwear, but Japan has such a wonderful traditional underwear, I am trying to let many people know about this. » More and more media put articles about it or have a special corner about this Japanese traditional underwear on TV. Is it working?

(Photo : What’s for St. Valentines Day　by minachom)

Big popular shop “TokyuHands” started to sell the Fundoshi on their shops. It seems 60 percent of customers are men and the rest are women. So when is the hot time to buy one anyway? It seems around the Valentine’s Day, the sales get more than triple than the usual time. In Japan, for the Valentine’s Day women offer chocolates to their boyfriends, husband, co workers, and sometimes close friends too. As you all know, the Valentine’s Day is 14th February, but in Japan, there is the day just for girls to get return present from boys. It is called white day. 14th March. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the data that if in 14 the March the sale of Fundoshi gets higher or not, but if girls offered such a original gift, the boys answer that too? I have no idea the reaction of boys for the girls put Fundoshi as underwear… I think I have to ask my husband about it. Well, the back is T-back so… maybe it can be sexy?

If you go to Japan, try to look on “TokyuHands” maybe they got what you looked for!

Thank you to read my articles!

Ayami