How are fundoshi counted?

Question

「昔【むかし】は裸【はだか】やったけ、なお寒【さむ】かった」と振【ふ】り返【かえ】る秀子【ひでこ】さんは[30歳]【さんじゅっさい】までふんどし[1枚]【いちまい】で潜【もぐ】っていた

"I used to dive naked and it was even colder," recalls Hideko, who dove in a loincloth until she was 30 years old.

https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/324301

The sentence above contains ふんどし[1枚]【いちまい】

but wwwjdic has 褌一丁【ふんどしいっちょう】

To save some clicking and typing, online dictionaries say the following:

ふんどし一丁 【いっちょう】

褌一丁 【ふんどしいっちょう】(wearing) a loincloth alone, nothing but a loincloth

一枚 【いちまい】 one thin flat object; one sheet

一丁 【いっちょう】(1) one sheet; one page; one leaf; (2) one block of tofu; one serving (in a restaurant); (3) (also written as 一挺, 一梃) one long and narrow thing (e.g. guns, scissors, spades, hoes, inksticks, palanquins, candles, jinrikishas, shamisen, oars, etc.)

The problem seems to be that a fundoshi is not only long and thin, but also flat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samurai_putting_on_Fundoshi_(loincloth).png

Can I assume one can therefore use either counter for this item?

Answer 1

Most modern Japanese people haven't seriously counted fundoshi (actually, many of them haven't even seen one in real life). Still, I think the natural counter for them is either 枚 or 本 (or maybe 着).

Here, 一丁 is a special expression found in several set phrases:

• ふんどし一丁 (and by extension, パンツ一丁)
• もう一丁
• 一丁前

The existence of these phrases does not mean people today count ふんどし or パンツ using 丁. And this does not mean "ふんどし1枚" is incorrect, either.

丁 is used as a true counter for tōfu blocks, ramen/gyūdon bowls and handguns.