A Length of Rare and Rural Okuso Cloth: Woven Hemp Fiber Waste

early twentieth century
33" x 12 1/2", 81.5 cm x 32 cm

For those serious about Japanese folk textiles, the fiber called okuso is an important one to know about because it embodies everything relevant about rural life, primarily the concept contained in the word mottainai which cautions not to waste a thing.  Okuso is a prized cloth among connoisseurs of Japanese country textiles.  

In old Japan, rural folk cultivated hemp and ramie and they would process these plants into yarns of varying grades of quality, aiming to ply the fibers fine enough to use in elegant applications.  Often they did not keep the fine yarns they produced, they were was sold to brokers or shops.

The process of turning the inner bark of hemp and ramie plants into yarn is a complex and laborious one and in so doing, a good amount of fibrous waste was created.  

This waste, or okuso, was collected, coffered and then spun into a crude yarn that would be used in home weaving for cloth to be used by the peasant families for themselves. 

This is a length of that heavily woven, well-textured okuso cloth that shows a hemp warp with a weft of lightly twisted or spun okuso fiber.

There is a bit of loss to the length (shown here in detail) and the back of the piece, also shown, is patched.

Although humble in appearance, this self-effacing cloth is an emblem of the Japanese's ingenuity and skill in using materials while not wasting even a fiber.

Recommended.