Since ancient times the noren has signified the “face” or the prestige of shops and stores and is the cultural heritage of the comon man.”

Masuda Tadashi

 

The use become so part of the society that "noren go furui" (the noren is old) signified an established shop of good reputation while "noren ni kizu go tusita" (a stain on its noren) indicated a shop with a bad reputation.

 

 

 

 

A noren is a hanging cloth which usually appears over a Japanese doorway. It originated as a cloth covering doorways to zen temples to keep out cold and dirt. Later stores and business establishments used the noren for those same purposes plus the added value of displaying the name or logo of the business, or a graphic image which indicated the nature of the business, or even just an artistic something.

Masuda Tadashi spent ten years photographing norens in Japan and published the book "The Design Heritage of Noren, Traditional Japanese Store-Front Art" showing hundreds of examples of beautiful norens.

 

noren

This one was hanging in front of the Aizenkobo Workshop, located in the Nishijin section (traditional textile production area) of Kyoto. Aikzenkbo uses pure Japanese indigo dye and natural fibers to produce handcrafted custom made goods, including norens.The brush stroke circle has been a common visual artistic element in Japan for hundreds of years (no, it was not created by some design agency for Lucent Tech). While associated with Zen, it is used often simply for its visual meaning.

 

 

pickle noren

This very attractive noren indicates the pickle store is open. There are many kinds of Japanese pickles and a store such as this one in Kyoto may have 20 or 30 different kinds available. For more fun, once inside, you can taste samples of the pickles. Japanese pickles are very good. My favorite is the Sen Mai pickle which comes from Kyoto and is available around late December. Notice also the stone entrance.

 

willow noren

When we visited Aizenkobo we were invited inside. The workshop is in an old Kyoto style merchants house and it is filled with lots of interesting stuff. This tree noren was hanging inside a doorway.

tied noren

A noren may be tied down as above or extend a long way as below.

 

longnoren

Sueno seto

One of my favorite pottery shops, Sue-No-Sato is in Seto, an old city in an old pottery making area, famous for Ki-Seto (Yellow) as well as Shino and Oribe. The noren, with the name of the store on it, is hanging in the doorway which seperates the back room from the showroom. These photographs are about two years apart and show two treatments of the same name.

A noren hanging in the background of an apporach to a house.

 

noren

It is common for restaurants to have norens like these usuallly with the name on it.

 

noren

 

noren

 

noren

 

noren

Here a small business has a plain white one.

 

noren

But these two I thought were interesting.

 

noren

 

 

takoyaki

While this noren may not be as artisticaly appealing as others, I am always glad to see it, because I know that one of my favorite street foods is available. Tako Yaki is squid dropped in batter, cooked in an iron grill and then covered with sauce and fish flakes.This one was at the Obara-Mura Obon.

 

 

naegele noren

We purchased this noren in Kyoto.