A Two Panel Boro Textile: Soft Hand Spun, Hand Woven Cotton Base

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
55" x 28 1/2", 139.5 cm x 72 cm

The base cloth of this slightly tattered, two panel boro cloth is a beautifully colored woven stripe that has aged wonderfully: the colors are toned down and the cloth itself is remarkably soft to the touch, the result of years of use.

Clearly this two panel section was taken from a futon cover.

The surface is studded with a good amount of patches, each of which sits artfully in contrast to the base cloth.

The long, plaid patch in the center is located to the left of an unpatched hole, probably damage that happened just before this cloth was set aside to be stored for the unnamed decades that it was.

This boro cloth shows an artful simplicity that reminds us of how the people of old Japan were concerned with extending the life of hand spun, hand woven cloth: they went through tremendous effort to hand weave the cloth they used everyday so they were careful not to waste a shred of it.

Beautiful.