Magimagi

Magimagi is a product made of coconut husk.

The process of weaving the husk into the traditional look is very labor-intensive. The earliest record of the unique Magimagi design is listed in the Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition by Wilkes (Wilkes, 1845). Concerning the bures that were on the island Wilkes says, “The walls and roof of the mbure [bure] are constructed of canes about the size of a finger, and each one is wound round with sennit [Magimagi] as thick as cod-line, made from the cocoa-nut husk” (p. 119). The forefathers of the current inhabitants of the Vulaga islands used Magimagi in the construction of their houses and canoes. The unique weaved design is accomplished by Vulaga teams that are able to design many graphics into the look.

Magimagi coconut trees take about five years to bear fruit. The husks from the nuts are braided and woven into a strong, thin rope "as thick as a cod line". The Magimagi coconut only grows in the Lau group of island in the nation of Fiji Islands. This scarce natural resource is weaved into artistic beauty by the people of Vulaga who are the originators of this unique talent.

MAGiMAGi

MAGiMAGi (マジマジ), also known as Magical Illusions (落入魔法国, Raku Nyuu Mahou Kuni), is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jirō Suzuki.

It is about a girl named Akira. Ever since she was little she's loved mythical fantasy books about magicians and can't wait to grow up to be an author so she can write about magic. She has always believed in magicians and she believes that one day a magician will appear and whisk her off to magical land so she can escape the world she lives in, where nobody is interested in magic or her dreams of magical worlds. And then, after another humdrum day in the real world, she falls through a manhole, and finds herself in what might just be the world she's been looking for.

Plot

One day whilst daydreaming on the way home from school Akira falls down an uncovered drain and finds herself not in a sewer but in another world... Appearing from a hole in a tree-trunk, she meets a young man dressed as a magician who introduces himself as Haru. Given that the passage between worlds she has just fallen through is one-way only, he tells her she can come along to the house he shares with his brothers. Akira moves from delight at having discovered a magical world to horror as she discovers that fantasy worlds are notably lacking in features that we take for granted - having to walk everywhere exhausts her, and not being able to get mobile phone signal are her first horrors. Much of the comic features on Akira and Haru's incredulity and misunderstanding of each other's worlds. Haru cannot understand why Akira gets so excited by what he considers mundane objects, but is envious when she explains washing machines, tumble driers and electricity, which would make his life considerably easier as he spends his time doing all of the housework and cooking for his older brothers. Sen, the oldest, is too lazy to help, and Kai, the middle brother, too dopy.