A tofu delivery boy and the fastest car on the mountain

Every morning before dawn, a sleepy high schooler drives his father's old hatchback down a steep mountain road to deliver tofu, and he's been doing it for years. He doesn't care about cars, but without realizing it, he has become one of the best drivers in Japan, drifting through hairpin turns faster than anyone. When street racers challenge him on his mountain, he starts winning, and the legend grows. Initial D is the anime that made drifting famous around the world, set to pounding Eurobeat music. An Initial D-inspired rug brings its look into a room: a winding mountain pass, drift tire marks, a cup of water, a tachometer at redline, night headlight trails or a tofu shop sign. Every design is printed into soft velvet and goes in the washing machine.

Initial D-inspired designs

Design	The look	Best in
Mountain pass	A top-down road twisting through hairpins	Kids' rooms, game rooms
Drift marks	Smoky black tire arcs on gray asphalt	Garages, man caves
Cup of water	A paper cup of water in a cup holder	Offices, gaming setups
Tachometer	A glowing gauge with the needle at redline	Round rugs, sim racing rigs
Headlight trails	Long-exposure light streaks down a mountain	Home theaters, hallways
Tofu shop sign	A small family shop sign with your name	Kitchens, entryways

The series

Initial D is a manga by Shuichi Shigeno, serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine from 1995 to 2013. Its anime adaptation began in 1998 with First Stage and continued through Final Stage in 2014, followed by a trilogy of films and a live-action movie made in Hong Kong. Takumi Fujiwara delivers tofu for his father's shop, driving a black-and-white 1980s Toyota hatchback, a model famous among car fans, down Mount Akina, a fictional version of Mount Haruna in Gunma Prefecture. After he beats a famous rival, he's drawn into the world of mountain-pass racing, where teams of street racers battle on twisting roads across the region, and later joins an elite team aiming to beat every course.

The mountain pass

The real star of the show is the road: narrow, twisting mountain passes, called touge in Japanese, full of hairpin turns. A top-down rug of a winding mountain road snaking through green forest, with guardrails, hairpins and a lookout at the top, is a bold, graphic design for a game room, and it doubles as a perfect track for toy cars in a kid's room. Choose Standard, 5 mm crushed velvet on a non-slip faux leather back, about 500 g/m², which stays put during races. For more, see our Hot Wheels rugs and kids' play rugs.

Drift marks

Drifting means sliding a car sideways through a corner while keeping control. A rug of smoky black tire marks arcing across gray asphalt, with a faint white center line, is a cool, graphic design for a garage, a man cave or a car lover's office, and it reads as abstract art to anyone else. In a garage, keep it indoors and dry; Standard grips concrete. For more, see our man cave rugs.

The cup of water

The hero's father trained him by placing a paper cup of water in the cup holder and telling him not to spill a drop on his deliveries, teaching him to drive with perfect smoothness. A rug of a simple paper cup of water in a cup holder, filled to the brim, is a clever, minimalist design that true fans recognize instantly, perfect under an office desk or a gaming setup. Under a desk chair, choose Standard in 3.3×5 or 4×6 ft, which stays put and lets the wheels roll. Our desk chair rugs page has more sizes.

The tachometer

When the race gets serious, the engine screams toward redline. A round rug of a glowing tachometer, white numbers on black with the needle pinned in the red zone, is a striking design for a sim racing rig or a car lover's room. Our round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across.

Headlight trails

Night races on the mountain leave streaks of light behind them. A rug of long-exposure headlight and taillight trails, white and red ribbons winding down a dark mountainside, is a gorgeous, cinematic design for a home theater or a hallway runner, up to 10 ft long.

The tofu shop

The whole legend starts with a small family tofu shop and an early morning delivery route. A rug of a simple shop sign with your own family name, in a classic Japanese style, is a fun, personal design for a kitchen or just inside the front door. Keep entry rugs indoors, out of the weather. Our custom rugs can print it in any size up to 5′11″ × 10′.

Eurobeat

The races are set to Eurobeat, a fast, synth-heavy dance music style produced mostly in Italy and hugely popular in Japan in the 1990s. Thanks to the anime, and later to internet memes of cars drifting to its pounding beats, Eurobeat found millions of new fans worldwide. A neon rug of speakers, equalizer bars and racing stripes in pink and blue is a fun design for a music corner. For more, see our music rugs.

Drifting, from mountains to stadiums

Drifting grew out of Japan's mountain roads in the 1970s and 1980s and became an official motorsport, with professional series in Japan, the US and around the world, held on closed tracks with safety crews. Initial D introduced a generation of fans to it. It's a thrill to watch, but please leave it to professionals and closed courses, not public roads.

Japanese car culture

The series is packed with real cars from Japan's golden age of sports cars, the 1980s and 1990s, from lightweight hatchbacks to rotary-engined coupes. Many of those cars became collectors' classics, partly because of the anime. A blueprint-style rug of a car of your own choosing, drawn in white lines on blue, without the maker's badges, is a great piece for an enthusiast's garage or office.

Racing games

Initial D inspired its own arcade racing games, and its mountain passes have been recreated in countless racing sims. A mountain pass or tachometer rug under a sim rig makes the setup feel like the real thing. For more, see our gaming rugs.

Kids' rooms

The anime suits teens and adults, but a top-down mountain road or a town racetrack is a classic play rug for young car lovers. Every rug goes in the washing machine after a long day of races.

Bedrooms and dorms

A headlight trail or drift mark rug brings speed and style to a bedroom or a dorm. Choose Standard on hard floors. For a softer bedroom rug, choose Premium, 7 mm plush velvet on a bamboo and cotton back, about 700 g/m². Our bedroom rugs page has more layouts.

Checkered flags

A classic black-and-white checkered rug is a simple nod to the finish line, for a racing fan's room or a game room. For more, see our checkered rugs.

Pairing with furniture

These rugs suit sporty, retro rooms: black and white furniture, framed car posters of your own, a shelf of model cars, neon signs and a racing seat at the desk.

Colors

Initial D-inspired designs look best in black and white, asphalt gray and forest green, with glowing red and white for lights and neon pink and blue for Eurobeat.

Other anime

For more retro anime classics, see our Akira and Cowboy Bebop rugs, and all our anime and manga rugs.

Gifts

An Initial D-inspired rug makes a great gift for a car enthusiast, a sim racer or an anime fan. The cup of water is the cleverest; the mountain pass is the most fun, especially for kids with toy cars.

Your own design

Want your local mountain road, your own car in blueprint or a tofu shop sign with your family name? Our custom rugs can print it, or cut it to shape with our shaped rugs. Please only send artwork you're allowed to use; car maker logos, official decals and character art belong to their owners. Custom rugs are made just for you and can't be returned.

Sizes, shipping and returns

Rectangles come in 2×3, 2.6×3.9, 3.3×5, 4×6 and 5×7 ft. Round rugs come from 2.6 to 5.9 ft (80 to 180 cm) across, and shaped rugs from 2.6×2.6 up to 5.2×5.9 ft (80×80 to 160×180 cm). Custom sizes go up to 5′11″ × 10′, including long runners. Every rug is printed to order in 1–3 business days and ships from Turkey; US delivery usually takes 2–5 business days after that. Unused rugs can be returned within 30 days on US orders; custom rugs can't be returned.

Care

Machine wash on a gentle, cold cycle and let it air dry flat. Vacuum on a low setting between washes, and blot spills with cold water right away. The design is printed into the fibers, so every hairpin stays sharp, wash after wash.

Real mountain passes

Initial D's touge battles take place on roads inspired by real Japanese mountain passes. Mount Akina, where Takumi delivers tofu every morning, is based on Mount Haruna in Gunma Prefecture, with a lake at the top and tight, twisting turns on the way down. Other races are set on roads modeled on the Usui Pass and other routes in the region, and fans still drive to Haruna to see the corners for themselves.

Japan has many famous mountain roads. Irohazaka, near Nikko, is known for its 48 hairpin bends, one for each syllable of the old Japanese alphabet, split between two one-way roads. These roads, with their guardrails, mist and autumn colors, are the true stars of the series.

That landscape makes a beautiful rug. A top-down map of a mountain pass, its hairpins drawn as a ribbon of road with corner numbers, is a clever design for a driver's den or a sim racing setup. A misty road at dawn with headlights cutting through the fog captures Takumi's early-morning runs, and a lake at the summit framed by pines brings a calmer mood to a bedroom.

For car lovers, a rug that marks your own favorite drive, a coastal road, a canyon, a pass you've conquered, keeps a great day on the road close to home.

For a sim racing setup, the hairpin road map works beautifully under a racing seat and a wheel stand.

Numbering each hairpin, as rally co-drivers do in their notes, turns the road map into a course you can talk through corner by corner.

Padrift is an independent studio. Initial D is named to describe what our designs are inspired by; we are not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Shuichi Shigeno, Kodansha or any car maker, and our rugs do not use official decals, badges or the characters' likenesses.