For sale here is a bag by the Tembea label, a somewhat smaller Japanese brand based in Kyoto that focuses primarily on making bags. Their ethos is to design bags for a specific purpose such as carrying bread, toys, newspapers, vegetables and so on. Like many small-scale Japanese manufacturers, quality is first and foremost with Tembea. All of their bags are produced on vintage shuttle looms, using combed cotton yarns that are treated with paraffin. This makes the bags highly water resistant and pretty rigid at first, but like a pair of quality denim pants the bag will gradually break in with wear and turn into something totally unique.
This bag is Tembea’s “baguette tote medium” bag. As the name implies, it was designed with holding longer items in mind such as baguettes, or perhaps a more modern accessory like a notebook or laptop. To me the design references the LL Bean cylinder bag, although there are some definite tweaks here. For one, quality is stepped up considerably. This is a substantial cotton canvas as noted, which will break in very nicely. The other big twist is on the shoulder strap. It is asymmetrically placed, tactfully allowing you to place large items in the bag without worry about it slipping off of your shoulder. This particular model has a star motif throughout as well.
A lot of Japanese labels are known for their obsession with quality materials and construction, doing one particular thing the best it can possibly be done. That’s Tembea with bags. These pieces are pretty hard to come by outside of Japan. They have limited international distribution, but are well worth checking out. Retail on this bag is about $150, but get it here much more reasonably.
Size is a medium as noted, working well for a unisex men’s or woman’s shoulder bag. I measure the height at 14” from top to bottom, width at 15” from left to right, and depth at 5.5”. This should cover you well for holding daily goods. The bag comes in lightly used, very good shape with no holes, tears or stains. Made in Japan.
Shipping from Japan to anywhere will be $28.