What scenes spring to mind when you think of tenugui? There are many. Those dashing people shouldering a heavy mikoshi (portable shrine) at a shrine festival, with tenugui tied around their heads. A comic rakugo storyteller pulling out a tenugui and using it in every way imaginable. A public bathhouse in an ukiyo-e print. A woman with a Japanese hairdo, a tenugui wrapped in a distinctive style around her head. A carpenter with a tenugui hanging from his waist, or a gardener with one round his head, or a farmer with one round his neck. A handy prop in Japanese dance, or a scene in a sewamono (domestic play) in kabuki. Kendo fencers putting on tenugui under their protective headgear. And more. Tenugui appear in a host of settings. They are truly an all-purpose treasure.