Boro Textiles

Japan's mended and patched textiles are referred to as boro, or ragged, both in Japan and abroad.

Boro t
extiles are usually sewn from nineteenth and early twentieth century rags and patches of indigo dyed cotton.  The diversity of patches on any given piece is a veritable encyclopedia of hand loomed cotton indigo from old Japan. In most cases, the beautiful arrangement of patches and mending stitches is borne of necessity and happenstance, and was not planned by the maker.

Imagine that boro textiles were stitched in the shadows of farmhouses, often at night by the light of one dim andon, on the laps of farm women. This unselfconscious creative process has yielded hand-made articles of soulful beauty, each of which calls upon to be recognized and admired as more than the utilitarian cloth they were intended to be.

A Long, Pieced Length of Patched Kasuri Cotton: Kasuri Warp and Weft

A Long, Pieced Length of Patched Kasuri Cotton: Kasuri Warp and Weft

early twentieth century73" x 12 1/2", 185.5 cm x 31 cm Th... (more)

A Patched and Pieced Large Narumi Kongata Cloth: Stencil Dyeing Mimicking Shibori

A Patched and Pieced Large Narumi Kongata Cloth: Stencil Dyeing Mimicking Shibori

early twentieth century51 1/4" x 26", 130.25 cm x 66 cm T... (more)

A Beautifully Mended Tsunobukuro: Horn Bag

A Beautifully Mended Tsunobukuro: Horn Bag

early to mid twentieth century49" x 15 1/2", 80 cm x 37 c... (more)

A Large, Square Kotatsugake: Hearth Cover of Recycled Cotton Kimono

A Large, Square Kotatsugake: Hearth Cover of Recycled Cotton Kimono

early to mid twentieth century61" x 62", 155 cm x 157.5 c... (more)

A Pieced Indigo Dyed Cotton Kasuri Futon Cover: Two Patterns

A Pieced Indigo Dyed Cotton Kasuri Futon Cover: Two Patterns

early twentieth century51 1/4" x 29", 135 cm x 73.5 cm Th... (more)