Shinto Towel
CONVERSATION WITH
Mr. Shinto (Company President)
WRITTEN BY
Geoffrey Guyonnet
Chapter 1
A BRAND THAT CAME AFTER THE FACTORY
Shinto Towel did not begin as a lifestyle brand. The company was founded in 1907 in Senshu, one of Japan's historical towel-producing regions, and first sold its own products under the name Marushin. Over time, as imported towels entered the market and price competition intensified, the company gradually moved toward OEM production.
By the time the current president joined, around 90 percent of the business was OEM. The factory was still active, the techniques were still present, and the knowledge had not disappeared. But the maker itself had become almost invisible, hidden behind the names of other companies.
Inside the factory, original fabrics such as inner-pile towels continued to exist. They carried the thinking of the manufacturer, but rarely its identity. Shinto Towel, launched in 2017, was therefore not a clean beginning. It was closer to a return: a manufacturer deciding that if it wanted to speak about its own way of making, it first needed products that could carry its own name.
Chapter 2
THE NEED TO STEP FORWARD
The decision to create Shinto Towel came after a period of instability. The founder's grandfather, who had led the company, passed away, and the following years were spent understanding the business, keeping production steady, and finding the ground again.
Only after that came the question of what the company should become next. Around the same time, more Japanese manufacturers were beginning to move beyond wholesalers and speak directly to customers. Factories were no longer only places of production. They were becoming places of communication.
For Shinto Towel, this shift mattered because the company already had unusual techniques and fabrics that only it could make. What was missing was not capability, but a visible form. As long as those fabrics remained hidden inside OEM work, the company could not explain its own position, nor could it show why its way of making deserved to continue.
Chapter 3
A PRODUCT HAS TO CARRY THE SPIRIT OF THE PERSON WHO MADE IT
One early reference came from another Osaka towel maker, Fukuroya Towel, which had created towels dyed with the residue of Kawachi wine. What stayed with Shinto Towel was not only the idea of reuse, but the alignment between the maker and the product.
The maker liked wine. He enjoyed the project. The ecological meaning was there before sustainability became a fixed marketing language, and the finished towel felt natural because it came from something close to the person who made it.
When Shinto Towel began, the founder did not start with an abstract market position. He began with three products already made by the company, each one something he personally wanted to use. The brand grew from proximity: from touching the product, recognizing the company's own thinking inside it, and allowing that recognition to become visible.
Chapter 4
WHAT IS A TRULY GOOD TOWEL?
Shinto Towel's central question is simple: what is a truly good towel? The answer, however, is deliberately unstable. Absorbency matters. Drying speed matters. Texture, density, design, and weight all matter. But none of these elements alone can define quality.
One person may care most about softness. Another may want a towel that dries quickly in a small apartment. Another may simply prefer something light in the hand, easy to wash, and quiet in daily use.
For Shinto Towel, the final judgment belongs to the user. A good towel is not only a technical achievement. It has to fit a rhythm of life. It has to disappear into use while still carrying the decisions that made it possible.
Chapter 5
ATO-ZARASHI AS A SILENT FOUNDATION
Senshu's towel culture is built around ato-zarashi, a post-washing process carried out after the towel is woven. Cotton naturally contains oils and impurities, and starch is added during weaving to keep the yarn from breaking. If these elements remain in the fabric, the towel feels stiff and absorbs poorly.
Ato-zarashi removes them slowly after weaving. The result is not a surface effect, but a condition of use: the towel absorbs from the beginning because the cotton has already been washed back toward its natural capacity.
This process is one of the quiet foundations of Senshu's identity. Tradition here is not decoration or nostalgia. It is a sequence of technical decisions embedded in the fabric, felt every time the towel touches water.
Chapter 6
THE PROCESS OF MAKING A TOWEL
STEP 1 | BEGINNING WITH COTTON AND YARN
Production begins before weaving. Cotton yarn is selected according to the desired weight, softness, absorbency, and drying speed. The choice of yarn already determines how the towel will behave after repeated use.
STEP 2 | WEAVING THE TOWEL IN ITS RAW STATE
The towel is woven while the yarn still contains natural oils and added starch. This starch protects the yarn during weaving, preventing breakage and allowing the fabric to take shape with stability. At this stage, the towel is not yet ready to use.
STEP 3 | ATO-ZARASHI, THE SENSHU PROCESS
This is where Senshu differs from other towel-producing areas. In Imabari, the yarn is washed before weaving. Senshu developed another logic: weaving first, washing after. The difference is not cosmetic. It gives the region its specific hand, absorbency, and way of making.
STEP 4 | FINISHING THE TOWEL
After ato-zarashi, the towel moves through drying, softening, cutting, and sewing. These stages give the fabric its final hand, stabilize its shape, and prepare it for everyday use.
STEP 5 | INSPECTION
Once finished, the towel is inspected closely. Some irregularities do not affect function, but they still raise a question: would the person receiving this towel feel discomfort when seeing it on a shelf? This attention is part of how Shinto Towel understands Japanese quality.
Chapter 7
JAPAN-MADE IS NOT AN EXCUSE
There is a temptation, especially outside Japan, to let the phrase Japanese quality explain everything. Shinto Towel resists that shortcut. The founder acknowledges that being made in Japan can create a certain advantage in perception, but he refuses to treat nationality as proof.
For him, the more interesting quality is less visible. It appears in attention to the other person: in inspection, in hesitation, and in the moment a maker asks whether a customer would feel discomfort seeing a certain irregularity on a shelf.
That care is not loud. It does not need to become a slogan. It lives in the standard the company sets for itself before the towel reaches the hand of the person who will use it.
Chapter 8
THE AFTERLIFE OF B-GRADE TOWELS
Shinto Towel avoids simply selling B-grade towels at a discount. For a towel brand, that decision matters. Towels are not replaced every season. Some people use the same towel for years. If B-grade sales become expected, the value of the regular product begins to collapse.
Instead, the company looks for other forms of continuation. One example is Yukine Bits, a small handkerchief-size product made by cutting usable sections from rejected towels and sewing the edges again. The original defect disappears into a new format. Not hidden exactly, but transformed.
Another project uses B-grade pieces from Shinto Towel's 2.5 Gauze series to make shirts, with minimal cutting so that new waste is not created unnecessarily. In each case, the question is not how to disguise imperfection, but how to let material continue without weakening the value of the original product.
Chapter 9
KEEPING A REGION ABLE TO CONTINUE
Shinto Towel's philosophy returns again and again to Senshu, not as scenery, but as infrastructure. Japanese towel production depends on a local division of labor: weaving, washing, dyeing, finishing, sewing, and inspection. Each step relies on different people and companies.
If one part weakens, the whole structure becomes fragile. If processing partners are constantly pushed down on price, they cannot continue. If they cannot make a profit, they cannot train successors.
For Shinto Towel, supporting the region does not mean romanticizing craft. It means not negotiating every partner down. It means accepting necessary price increases. It means creating work that allows others to continue with dignity.
The towel is only the visible result. Behind it is a quieter ambition: to keep a regional system alive long enough for another person to enter it.
HONMO.
NOTES
Shinto Towel is not only a story of technique. What stayed with us after the conversation was the way the owner spoke about making: not as a closed idea of quality, but as something that depends on the person receiving the object, the life around it, and the small discomforts or pleasures it may create in daily use.
This changes how the towel is understood. It is not simply absorbent, soft, light, or well made. It is the result of choices made for different kinds of users, different rhythms of life, and different expectations of care.
Inside the factory, that philosophy becomes visible. Several generations of machines remain in use. The craft is preserved, but not frozen. The production feels practical, precise, and human at the same time.
Shinto Towel carries this balance well: a regional method, a manufacturer's responsibility, and the desire to create something that still feels personal. Not perfect for everyone, but considered enough to belong to someone.