A Whimsical World in Ehime Prefecture, Japan ~ The Towel Art Museum

Text & Photography / Wei Ruiwei

If you love stylish home accessories and artistic environments, don’t miss the Towel Art Museum in Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, when traveling around Shikoku in Japan. This five-story building, which blends European-style architecture with an elegant garden landscape, not only sells a variety of creative towel goods and Shikoku specialties, but also offers delightful surprises on the 4th and 5th floors, such as artist Atsuko Matano’s towel creations, displays themed around the cartoon character MOOMIN, as well as opportunities to observe the towel-weaving process...

The ingenuity of Atsuko Matano takes us beyond the size range of hand towels to bath towels, and beyond their purely functional use for wiping. Here, towels become as vivid as canvases and paints, taking on richer forms and providing spiritual nourishment as pleasing as fine art. Observing their composition, weaving, and color schemes, their flexibility is in no way inferior to that of a paintbrush.

At the Towel Art Museum, you can not only view many artistic creations, but also learn about the towel-making process and types of cotton. Moreover, when purchasing towels here, you can have them embroidered with text—at just 30 yen per character, and ready for pickup in about 30 minutes, they make highly memorable souvenirs.

This is a great place to spend half a day. Aside from the exhibits inside, there is also a large garden outside where you can slowly admire the scenery and take a stroll. The first floor has a café, and the backyard on the fourth floor houses the Wangfujing Chinese Restaurant. The owner specially brought in a chef formerly from Tokyo’s Ginza district, allowing tourists or locals who usually eat Japanese food to enjoy another flavor of Asian cuisine through different cooking styles.