are a class of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese textiles that have been mended or patched together.

Etymology

The term is derived from the Japanese term , meaning something tattered or repaired. The term typically refers to

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...

and

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest ...

materials, mostly hand-woven by peasant farmers, that have been stitched or re-woven together to create an often many-layered material used for warm, practical clothing. Historically, it was more economical to grow, spin, dye, weave and make one's own clothing over buying new garments, and equally as economical to re-use old, worn-out clothing as fabric for new garments; warmer fibres, such as cotton, were also less commonly available, leading to the development of layering as a necessity in the creation of lower-class clothing. textiles are typically dyed with

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

dyestuff, historically having been the cheapest and easiest-to-grow dyestuff available to the lower classes. Many examples of feature dyework, and most extant examples of today are antiques or modern reproductions made as a craft project, with the introduction of cheaper ready-to-wear clothing to early 20th century Japan rendering the creation of mostly unnecessary.

History

During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, fine

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

and cotton fabrics were reserved for a select portion of the upper classes, either through official edicts of dress, or the simple factor of cost; silk fabrics were also unsuitable for working clothes, leading to most practical clothing being developed with the aim of practical wear. Many working-class people grew, spun, dyed and wove their own clothing, leading to the development of other fabrics, such as . Due to the economic nature of repairing, re-using and re-weaving old clothing and fabrics, also developed out of a working-class need for inexpensive textiles, predominantly coming to signify the clothing of the peasant farming classes over time. Garments and textiles were repaired with spare fabric scraps out of necessity, and in many cases, the usage of repaired clothing lasted for several generations, leading to garments eventually resembling a complex and many-layered patchwork spanning decades of mending. The usage of indigo dyestuff () and indigo dyeing techniques () was common, with indigo dyes often being the only dyestuff available to use by the peasant classes. Indigo dye would often be grown and processed by the peasant classes themselves, being generally easy to grow, and also added a layer of protection to garments due to its moth-repelling properties. Dyeing fabrics with indigo was also incredibly economic, as one indigo dyebath could be used to dye fabric a number of times, in contrast to the average dyebath having just one use. A weak dyebath also provided benefits; a fabric dyed just a handful of times in a strong indigo dyebath would quickly fade, with the dye literally rubbing off from use in certain areas, whereas a fabric dyed repeatedly in a weak dyebath would be resistant to wear and more colourfast, also adding to the economical nature of indigo-dyed textiles.

Preservation

Following the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

and the general increase in living standards amongst the entire Japanese populace, most pieces were discarded and replaced by newer clothing. To many

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

Japanese people, these garments were an embarrassing reminder of their former poverty, and little effort was expended by government or cultural institutions at the time to preserve such artifacts. Over time, textiles came to exemplify the Japanese aesthetic of , with the fabric's reflection of natural wear and use considered beautiful. Many extant examples were preserved through the efforts of folklorists such as Chuzaburo Tanaka, who personally collected over 20,000 pieces of during his lifetime, including 786 items now designated as Important Tangible Cultural Properties. 1,500 of these items were exhibited at the Amuse Museum in

Asakusa, Tokyo is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known for Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as . History The development of Asaku ...

Saki-ori

was historically woven from old kimono cut into strips roughly , with one requiring roughly three old kimono to make. Historically, garments, such as vests, might be made from . Traditionally an article of thrift, are now quite expensive informal garments. are one-sided, and also often feature

ikat ''Ikat'' (literally "to bind" in Malayo-Polynesian languages) is a dyeing technique from Southeast Asia used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. In Southeast Asia, where it is th ...

-dyed designs of stripes, checks and arrows, commonly using indigo dyestuff.

References

External links

*
Boro – The Fabric of Life
' traveling exhibition

Amuse Museum,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...