The cloth over the doorway: how a noren tells you a Japanese shop is open

Before the lights come on, the first sign that a small restaurant in Japan is ready for you is a piece of cloth. The noren (暖簾) is a split curtain hung across the doorway. It goes up when service begins and comes down when service ends.

Out means open

At a ramen counter or a neighbourhood izakaya, the owner hangs the noren on a rod outside the door just before opening. When the last order is taken, it is lifted down and brought inside. If the window is lit but there is no noren, the kitchen is usually still getting ready or already cleaning up, and it is better to come back later.

The phrase noren o shimau (暖簾をしまう), to put away the noren, means closing for the night. People also use it when a long-running shop closes for good.

How to pass through

Most noren are split into two or three panels and hang at about head height. The usual way in is to part the centre seam with the back of one hand, dip your head slightly and step through. The cloth often carries the shop's name, so touching it lightly is part of arriving well.

What the characters say

At a sento, a public bath, a noren printed with ゆ (yu, hot water) marks the entrance. Inside, curtains marked 男 (otoko, men) and 女 (onna, women) lead to separate changing rooms. Indigo for men and red for women is common, but the colours vary, so go by the characters.

Noren-wake (暖簾分け), dividing the noren, is when a long-serving apprentice is allowed to open a shop under the master's name. So a matching curtain in another neighbourhood can mean the two shops share a history, not that they belong to a chain.

暖簾が外に出ていれば、その店は今日も開いています。