KEER2010, PARIS | MARCH 2-4 2010
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON KANSEI ENGINEERING AND EM OTION RESEARCH 2010

STUDY ON COMFORTABLE ELEMENTS
OF WET COTTON HAND TOWELS"OSHIBORI"
Yasuhiro SOETA*ac, Ryo ANDOc, Takuma KITAMOTOb, Hiroshi HASEGAWAc, andMasao KASUGAc
aSankyo Co. Ltd., Japan
Faculty of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, Japanc
Graduate school of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, JapanbABSTRACT
In the present study, we attempted to clarify the important elements of the feelings of comfort
associated with wet cotton hand towels, or oshibori. First, the following adjectives wereextracted as words used to evaluate the characteristics of the oshibori: "favorite," "comfortable,""large," "pretty," "high-grade," "shapely," "soft," "thick," "clean," "moist," "luxurious," "heavy,""strong," "safe," "feel-smooth," and "rare." We then conducted a subjective evaluation of 25
kinds of oshibori of various sizes and thicknesses. Thirty-seven males and seven females,
ranging in age from their twenties to fifties, participated in the experiment. Each subject
evaluated the oshibori by grading them from one to five based on the extracted descriptivecharacteristics. Factor analysis was conducted on the experimental results and the following
three factors were extracted; the first factor defined as "dignity factor." The second factor
defined as "preference factor" and the third factor defined as "touch factor." The score fordignity increased as the size of the oshibori increased. The score for preference was high when
the size of the oshibori was between 25cm × 25cm and 30cm × 30cm. And the score for touch
was high when the size of the oshibori was 30cm × 30cm. These results suggest that subjects
felt high-class if the size of the oshibori was greater than 30cm × 30cm, but subjects most
preferred oshibori that were between 25cm × 25cm and 30cm × 30cm. No notable trend wasfound in the analysis of the thickness.
Keywords: oshibori, hand towel, subjective evaluation*

7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya-shi, Tochigi-ken, 321-8585, E-mail: y_soeta@3kyo-os.com

1.

INTRODUCTION

Oshibori are given to customers at restaurants before meals so that they can clean their faceand hands. Handing out oshibori to customers is one of the long-standing traditions in Japan,
and with the growth of the food service industry after the 1960s, the practice of handing out
oshibori spread throughout the country. While much research has been conducted on oshibori
over the years, most studies have investigated the towels from the perspective of cleaning andsanitation [1]-[5]. Few studies have assessed the qualitative and sensory characteristics
associated with oshibori. Thus, in order to qualitatively assess oshibori, we first conducted a
subjective evaluation using cotton and paper oshibori [6]. We reported that cotton oshibori wereassessed more favorably than paper oshibori in many aspects. The present subjective evaluation
was conducted to identify the important elements in determining the feeling of comfort
associated with oshibori, including the various sizes and thicknesses of oshibori that people
prefer.

2.

EXTRACTION OF EVALUATION WORDS

In this section, we describe a method for extracting words to evaluate the characteristics ofoshibori. First, a total of 1,189 possible adjectives that could describe oshibori were gatheredfrom past studies on oshibori and an adjective dictionary. Next, ten people were asked todetermine whether or not each adjective was appropriate for evaluating oshibori using thefollowing three grades (1: applicable, 2: neutral, and 3: not applicable). Based on the results, wediscarded the words whose average scores exceeded 2.5 points. The 1,189 words were narrowed
down to 221 adjectives that were deemed applicable. These 221 words were then classified into
60 groups with similar meaning, and the word with the highest score in each group wasidentified as a representative adjective. Subsequently, 107 people were asked to determine
whether or not the 60 words were appropriate for evaluating oshibori using the three gradelevels to narrow the list to 27 words. Of these 27 words, ones that were not appropriate for thepurpose of the present study, such as words related to smell and convenience, were excluded,
and the following 16 words were chosen to evaluate oshibori: favorite, comfortable, large, pretty,
high-grade, shapely, soft, thick, clean, moist, luxurious, heavy, strong, safe, feel-smooth, andrare. Along with each of these 16 words, an antonym was chosen to generate a list of 16 pairs ofwords to evaluate oshibori. The 16 pairs of words are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Words used to evaluate oshibori
small
ugly
uncomfortablecheap
unshapely
hard
unfavorable
thin

3.

⇔⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔

large
prettycomfortablehigh-grade
shapelysoft
favorite
thick

dirty
dry
simplelight
weak
unsaferoughcommon

⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔
⇔

clean
moist
luxurious
heavy
strongsafe
feel-smoothrare

SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION OF OSHIBORIThe semantic differential (SD) method was used for the subjective evaluation and wasconducted using the 16 pairs of words.

3.1. Samples
The experiment used a total of 25 different kinds of cotton oshibori with five different sizes
and five different thicknesses. All samples were pile-woven and unused. In order to remove dirt
and glue that became attached during manufacturing, all samples were washed once; the level ofresidual chlorine was set at less than 100 ppm. The moisture content of each oshibori was 2.5
times its dry weight, and in order to avoid changes in the moisture content, each sample waswrapped in a film. The size, thickness and weight of each sample type are shown in Table 2.
The temperature and humidity of the laboratory was set at 20 ± 2 °C and 60 ± 2%, respectively.
3.2. Procedure
Each sample was packed in a vinyl bag and all samples were prepared for one subject. The
subjects were instructed to randomly choose one oshibori at a time from the 25 available andwipe their hands to evaluate it. Subjects then scored the selected oshibori on a scale from 1 to 5
(1: lowest; 5: highest) in the 16 categories. The evaluation sheet used in the experiment isshown in Figure 1. After each evaluation, the subjects were instructed to sufficiently dry theirhands using a towel or electric fan to avoid influencing the evaluation of the next sample. The
evaluation process was divided into two sessions to avoid fatigue of the subjects, with a break ofat least one hour between them. Twelve samples were evaluated during the first part and 13
samples in the second part. One session of the experiment took less than 30 minutes.

very
1

slightly
2neutral3

slightly
4

very
5

small
ugly
uncomfortablecheap
unshapely
hard
unfavorable
thin
dirty
dry
simplelight
weak
unsaferoughcommonlarge
prettycomfortablehigh-grade
shapelysoft
favorite
thick
clean
moist
luxurious
heavy
strongsafe
feel-smooth
rare

Figure 1: Evaluation sheet used during the experiment.
3.3. Subjects
Forty-four people (males: 37; females: 7; age range: 20–59 years) participated in the study.

Table 2: Sizes, thicknesses, and weights of cotton oshibori evaluated in the present study
No.
C-1
C-2
C-3
C-4
C-5
C-6
C-7
C-8
C-9
C-10
C-11
C-12
C-13
C-14
C-15

size
(cmxcm)
20x20
20x20
20x20
20x20
20x20
25x25
25x25
25x25
25x25
25x25
30x30
30x30
30x30
30x30
30x30

thickness
（mm)
1.52
1.84
1.99
2.29
2.44
1.63
1.89
2.02
2.35
2.55
1.69
1.89
2.10
2.34
2.65

weight(g)
dry
wet
13.0
32.5
13.6
34.0
15.0
37.5
16.0
40.0
16.7
41.7
20.8
52.1
22.3
55.6
24.5
61.3
25.7
64.2
27.8
69.6
28.8
72.1
30.7
76.8
33.7
84.2
36.090.0
39.0
97.5

No.
C-16
C-17
C-18
C-19
C-20
C-21
C-22
C-23
C-24
C-25

size
(cmxcm)
35x35
35x35
35x35
35x35
35x35
40x40
40x40
40x40
40x40
40x40

thickness
（mm)
1.75
1.96
2.16
2.40
2.62
1.79
2.12
2.50
2.58
2.80

weight(g)
dry
wet
41.3
103.3
44.3
110.8
47.8
119.6
51.0
127.5
54.2
135.4
52.8
132.1
60.4
150.9
68.5
171.3
70.7
176.7
76.0
190.0

4.

RESULTSThe results for the following words that exhibited characteristic trends for the 25 different
oshibori (Table 2: C1 to C25) are shown in Figure 2: "favorite," "comfortable," "shapely,""thick," "strong," "rare," "pretty," "high-grade," "luxurious," "soft," "clean," and "feel-smooth."
In Figure 2(a), ○, ● and □ indicate "favorite," "comfortable," and "shapely," respectively. InFigure 2(b), ○, ● and □ indicate "thick," "strong," and "rare," respectively. In Figure 2(c), ○, ●and □ indicate "pretty," "high-grade," and "luxurious," respectively. In Figure 2(d), ○, ● and □indicate "soft," "clean," and "feel-smooth," respectively. Data suggest that, in terms of"favorite," "comfortable," and "shapely," 25 cm × 25 cm or 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori wereevaluated highly. The common size range for oshibori is 28–30 cm square, suggesting thatfamiliar sizes were evaluated favorably. In terms of "thick" and "strong" the tendency was thatthe thicker or stronger the oshibori, the more favorable the evaluation. With regards to "rare,"the subjects tended to view 20 cm × 20 cm and 40 cm × 40 cm oshibori as rare. As to "pretty,"
the smaller the size of the oshibori, the greater the score. In terms of "high-grade" and"luxurious" the scores for sizes larger than 30 cm × 30 cm were comparable, and as a result,large, 35 cm × 35 cm or 40 cm × 40 cm, oshibori are not necessarily viewed as high-grade orluxurious. The scores for "soft" and "clean" were mostly comparable because all samples wereunused, made of identical material, and woven in the same manner; although the score for "feelsmooth" was slightly higher for the 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori.

Grade point

5Grade point

30cmx30cm

35cmx35cm

40cmx40cm

32

5○:favorite ●:comfortable □:shapely

20cmx20cm

25cmx25cm

30cmx30cm(a)35cmx35cm

40cmx40cm

432
1
5

Grade point

25cmx25cm

4

1○:thick ●:strong □:rare

20cmx20cm

25cmx25cm(b)
30cmx30cm

35cmx35cm

40cmx40cm

432
1
5

Grade point

20cmx20cm○:pretty ●:high−grade □:luxurious

20cmx20cm

25cmx25cm

30cmx30cm(c)
35cmx35cm

40cmx40cm

4
3
2
1○:soft ●:clean □:feel−smooth(d)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Towel number

Figure 2: Oshibori evaluation results.

5.

DISCUSSION

5.1. Evaluation word correlations
In this section, we discuss the correlation coefficient of each word combination (Table 3).
Strong positive correlations with coefficients of more than 0.8 were seen among "favorite,""comfortable," and "shapely." Also, strong positive correlations were seen among "large,""thick," "luxurious," "heavy," and "strong." Furthermore, "high-grade" exhibited a strong
positive correlation to "large," "luxurious," "heavy," "strong," and "safe." Therefore, thesubjects associated size and thickness with luxuriousness and high-grade. On the other hand,"rare" exhibited a strong negative correlation to "favorite," "comfortable," and "shapely." Thissuggested that the subjects did not prefer rareness in oshibori. Also, "pretty" exhibited a strong
negative correlation to "large," "thick," "luxurious," "heavy," and "strong."

Table 3: Correlation coefficients among all words used to evaluate cotton oshibori
favorite comfort- largeablefavorite
1.000
comfortable 0.901 1.000
large-0.294 -0.057 1.000
pretty0.429 0.210 -0.978
high-grade 0.159 0.371 0.852
shapely0.911 0.808 -0.492
soft
0.758 0.616 -0.537
thick-0.409 -0.248 0.882
clear
0.621 0.641 -0.236
moist-0.528 -0.425 0.656
luxurious -0.097 0.121 0.946
heavy-0.363 -0.145 0.981
strong-0.281 -0.075 0.947
safe
0.469 0.594 0.641
feel-smooth 0.790 0.742 -0.101
rare-0.920 -0.869 0.400

pretty1.000-0.7700.618
0.644-0.909
0.319-0.740-0.894-0.982-0.945-0.5180.218-0.519highgrade
1.000-0.052-0.201
0.725
0.054
0.521
0.934
0.826
0.845
0.892
0.232
-0.050shapely

soft

thick

clean

moist

luxurios

heavystrongsafe

feelraresmooth1.000
0.695 1.000-0.564 -0.581 1.000
0.532 0.566 -0.428 1.000-0.595 -0.687 0.747 -0.444 1.000-0.273 -0.398 0.868 -0.179 0.645 1.000-0.551 -0.580 0.941 -0.328 0.739 0.938 1.000-0.460 -0.544 0.958 -0.271 0.730 0.943 0.979 1.000
0.285 0.044 0.486 0.242 0.271 0.782 0.591 0.647 1.000
0.608 0.699 -0.289 0.728 -0.441 -0.004 -0.197 -0.149 0.447 1.000-0.923 -0.594 0.506 -0.580 0.530 0.206 0.468 0.378 -0.341 -0.642 1.000

5.2. Factor analysis
Factor analysis was conducted on the experimental results using SPSS 16.0J. Factors wereextracted using the principal factor method, and varimax rotation was used for rotating thefactor axis. The factor matrix following rotation is shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Factor matrix
factorluxurious
stronglarge
heavy
high-grade
thick
safe
moist
prettyshapely
favoritecomfortablerarefeel-smooth
clean
soft

dignitypreference
0.983
0.031
0.961
-0.1560.957-0.2150.954-0.256
0.947
0.237
0.867
-0.274
0.790
0.507
0.638
-0.324-0.9170.344-0.2990.901-0.088
0.857
0.127
0.824
0.203
-0.8990.040
0.461-0.1260.403-0.3970.472

touch-0.073-0.149-0.041-0.1430.104-0.2560.205-0.407
0.120
0.236
0.468
0.470
-0.268
0.834
0.632
0.582

Factor analysis of the 16 evaluation words identified three factors, and each of these factors
was named based on the associated words as follows: 1) "dignity" with high absolute factor
loadings for "luxurious," "strong," "large," "heavy," "high-grade," "thick," "safe," "moist," and"pretty"; 2) "preference" with high absolute factor loadings for "shapely," "favorite,""comfortable," and "rare"; and 3) "touch" with high absolute factor loadings for "feel-smooth,""clean," and "soft."A factor score was calculated for the three extracted factors. The relationshipbetween dignity and preference factor scores is shown in Figure 3(a); between dignity and touchfactor scores in Figure 3(b); and between preference and touch factor scores in Figure 3(c). In
each figure, , ■, ▲, ×, and * represent 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40-cm square oshibori, respectively.
As shown in Figures 3(a) and (b), dignity factor scores had positive values when the size of theoshibori was more than 30 cm × 30 cm, suggesting that people believe that oshibori larger than
30 cm × 30 cm are of high dignity. As shown in Figures 3(a) and (c), the preference factor
scores were higher for 25 cm × 25 cm or 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori, suggesting that people prefer
25 cm × 25 cm to 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori. In Figures 3(b) and (c), no notable tendency isobserved for touch factor scores in relation to oshibori size, but the touch factor score for 30 cm× 30 cm oshibori was slightly higher.
Size of theoshibori(cm)(a)

Size of theoshibori(cm)

(b)
2◆ 20
■ 25▲ 30× 35＊ 40−20−101

dignity factor

20−2−2−2◆ 20■ 25▲ 30× 35
＊ 40

touch factor

0Size of theoshibori(cm)

(c)
2◆ 20
■ 25
▲ 30× 35
＊ 40

touch factor

preference factor

2−2−10dignity factor

12−2−1012

preference factor

Figure 3: Relationships between "preference," "dignity" and "touch" factors.
6.

CONCLUSIONSIn the present study, numerous adjectives suited for evaluating the characteristics of oshibori
were selected, and the following 16 words were extracted: "favorite," "comfortable," "large,""pretty," "high-grade," "shapely," "soft," "thick," "clean," "moist," "luxurious," "heavy,""strong," "safe," "feel-smooth," and "rare." Oshibori were then subjectively evaluated using
these 16 extracted words. Based on the results of the evaluation, correlation and factor analyses
were performed, and the following results were obtained:- The subjects viewed size and dignity as indicators for high-grade and luxurious oshibori.
- The subjects did not prefer rareness in oshibori.
- The important characteristics of oshibori were classified into preference, dignity and touchfactors.
- Dignity factor scores tended to be high for more than 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori.
- Preference factor scores tended to be high for 25 cm × 25 cm to 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori.
- Touch factor scores tended to be slightly higher for 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori.
- No notable trend was found between oshibori thickness and the three factors.

These results suggest that people perceive more than 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori as luxurious
and high-grade oshibori, but prefer 25 cm × 25 cm to 30 cm × 30 cm oshibori.

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