Skidmore College
Creative Matter
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)
Student Scholarship by Department
8-31-2015
An Aesthetic of Resourcefulness: Japanese Folk
Textiles from the Edo Period and Beyond
Mary E. Dolden Veale
Skidmore College
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Part of the Fiber, Textile, and Weaving Arts Commons
Recommended Citation
Dolden Veale, Mary E., "An Aesthetic of Resourcefulness: Japanese Folk Textiles from the Edo Period and Beyond" (2015). Master of
Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS). Paper 111.
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AN AESTHETIC OF RESOURCEFULNESS
- sakiori -
Mary Dolden Veale
AN A ESTH ETIC OF R ESOU RCE FULN ESS:
Japanese Folk Texti les from the Edo Period a n d Beyond:
Shifu, Sakiori and Baro
S kidmore Co l lege
J u ne 2015
A N AEST HETIC O F RESOU RCEFU LNESS:
J a p a n ese Fo l k Text i l es from the Edo Period a n d Beyond:
Shifu, Sakiori a nd Bora
by
M a ry E. Dolden Ve a l e
F i n a l Project subm itted i n partial fu lfil l m ent
of the req u irements for the degree of
M aster of Arts in Liberal Stu d ies
Skidmore Colle ge
J u n e 201 5
Advisors: San gwook Lee, Claudia M i l ls
Abstract
This paper d escribes the p l ace in time - th e ve rn a cu l a r co ntext in socia l ,
eco n o m i c, cu ltura l a n d geograp hic terms - i n which specific util ita ria n texti les -- sakiori,
shifu a n d boro -- were produced in J a p a n from, ro ugh ly, the Eda (or Tokugawa), through
the M e iji, Tais ho, a n d S h owa p e riods, or 1 600 to the mid-1 900's. Sakiori, shifu a n d boro
cloth i n g and house h o l d textiles incorporated re-pu rposed, re cycled fibers a n d mate rials
in respo nse to conditions of pove rty a n d h a rsh living conditions in ru ra l Japan. These
uti l itarian artifacts affect pa rticu l a r aesth etic qual ities, reflective of the co n ditions wit h i n
w h i c h t h e y were o rig i n a l l y produ ced, a n d a re resonant, t o s o m e conte mporary
a u d i ences, in t h e i r s i m p l i city and h u m i l ity of a l ate 20th a n d e a rly 2 1st centu ry modern i st
sensibil ity.
Definitions of Japanese textile terms:
Shifu
Shifu is cloth woven using either recycled paper, which has been treated and spun to form the weft in fabric,
or washi paper as the weft in weaving this fabric.
Sakiori
Sakiori is cloth made of torn cotton weft and hemp warp. Later the warp used was cotton. Pieces of cotton
were torn into strips and then used as the weft in the weaving of this utilitarian cloth.
Bora
Baro is the term that defines household textiles and clothing that were sewn of rags and remnants of cast­
off, Japanese clothing. They were often sewn and mended in layers to create warm and durable items for
wearing and use by the northern, rural population of Japan.
Table of Co nte nts
I.
I ntroduction
A. B a ckground
B . MALS Aca dem ic Structure
II.
Thesis
A. Shifu
B . Sakiori
C . B ora
D . H istory, Aesthetics a n d Resonance
I l l . A P l a ce i n Time
A. G eo g raphy
B . Soci a l , Pol itica l a n d Eco n o m i c H istory
C. I sa be l l a Lucy B i rd - A Va l u able O bserver of J a pa n in 1 878
D . Cotton and Tabane i n J a p a n
E. Ai: I n d i g o
F.
Kitamaesen
IV. O bjects to Artifacts
A. Weaving Tech n o lo gies and M ateria ls
B . P l ain Weave
C. Shifu
0. Sakiori
E.
B ora
V. Aesth etic Co ntext
V I . Concl usio n
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
MALS Thesis
M. Dolden Vea l e
An Aesth etic of Resourcefu l n ess: J a panese Folk Texti les from The Edo Period a n d
Beyond; Sakiori, Sh ifu a n d Boro
I. I ntroduction
B ackg ro u n d
I n t h e a ut u m n o f 1 993 I m oved t o O k i n awa, J a p a n where I l ived for t h e
fo l l owi n g three years. P rior t o th at, a n d based i n C a m b ridge, M a ssachusetts, I
had worked as a writer, ed itor a n d consu lta nt fo cusing o n topics of des i g n , a rt
a n d a rc h itecture. D u r i n g the mid-eig hties, I made seve ral trips to To kyo as a
d es i g n co nsu lta nt to J a p a n ese u n iversities, but a ctu a l l y livi n g i n O kinawa was
an entirely new a n d e n lightening experience . U n beknownst to m e as a new
a rrival in 1 993, O k i n awa has an i n c redibly rich and deep h e rita g e of a rt a n d
craft, in m a n y disci p l i n es, b u t especia l ly in texti les, a n d has, s i n ce a t l ea st the
1 41h centu ry. Lucky me.
O n o n e of my earlier trips to Tokyo a ro u n d 1 984, I fou n d a s m a l l shop
ca l le d N u m o that special ized i n texti les made in J a p a n . As I th i n k back, that
was a beg i n n i n g of what became a n i nte nse, life l o n g inte rest in J ap a n ese
texti les. M a ny years l ater, and h aving lived a broad in ve ry different p l a ces
-
F igure 1 Sak ior i
Ob i early 20th c.
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dolden Vea l e
from Ca l ifo r n i a to Cairo, and Texas to Dubai
-
M A L S Thesis
I decided to fo l low that i nterest in
broader terms; i n h istori cal textiles, while studying fo r a M a sters of Arts i n Liberal Stu dies
(MALS) deg ree at S kidm ore Col lege. The MALS program wou l d a l l ow m e to focus o n a
progra m of study that I h oped wou l d fo rm the basis for writi n g a book o n the
internati o n a l tradition of ragweavi ng, a fa i rly p a rti cu l a r type of fo l k, or vernacu l a r, texti le
that h a d evoked my perso n a l i nte rest.
"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where
other people see nothing. " Cam i l l e Pi ssa rro
My goal in this thesis is to describe the p l ace in time - the vernacu l a r co ntext i n
soc i a l , e co n o m i c, c u ltural a n d geogra p h i c te rms - i n which specific uti l ita rian textiles
sakiori, shifu a n d boro
--
-­
were produced in J a p a n fro m , rou g h l y, the Edo (o r Tokugawa),
through the M e ij i, Ta isho, and S h owa perio ds, o r 1 600 to the m i d-1 900's. Sakiori, shifu
a n d boro c l othi n g a n d household text i les i n co rpo rated re-p u rposed, recycled fibe rs and
materi a ls i n response to con d itions of poverty a n d h a rsh l iv i n g cond iti o n s i n ru ra l J apan.
These uti l itarian art ifacts affect part i cu l a r a esth etic qual ities, refl e ctive of the conditions
with i n which they were o ri g i n a l ly produced, and are resona nt, to some conte m po ra ry
a u d i e n ces, i n their s i m p l icity a n d h u m i l ity of a l ate 2Qlh a n d ea rly 2 1 't centu ry mod ern ist
sensi b i l ity.
Over the yea rs, I h ave m a inta i n ed my i nterest a n d l ove fo r a ntique a n d s i m p ly o l d
text i les, texti l e des i g n and w h a t i s variously termed " n a·1·ve, " "vernac u l a r, " " co u ntry" or
" fo l k " a rt or craft. Havi ng been fortu n ate enough to h ave traveled fa irly extensively, and
An Aesth eti c of Resou rcefu l n e ss
MALS Thesis
M . Dolden Vea le
living abroad many ye a rs, I h ave seen, e nj oyed a n d
s o u g h t o u t fo l k text i l es - qui lts, r a g weavings a n d
cata/ogne weaving from North America a n d
Scandi navia, sakiori a n d shifu weavings a n d the
eccentric fo rm of tattered a n d m en d ed textile - boro
- from J a pan - a re some exa m p l es. I am not a
co l l ector, but perhaps better d escribed as a sch o l a r
i n tra i n i n g .
There is a n ephemera l qu a l ity t o most of
these uti l itarian objects, a n d it is refle cted in the
Fig u re 2 Catalogne b lanket ,
Q uebec, 20th c.
c h a n g es i n aesthetic and cu ltu ral va l u e some these
pieces have ta ken on over t i me. B ut m a ny, if not m ost, have simply d isappeare d with
t i m e a n d neglect. M a ny, having been o ri g i na l ly made for heavy h o u se h o ld use or work
cl ot h i n g , were s i m p l y worn beyond re dempti o n , never having been acco rded the status
of "worth savi ng."
B ut over time, with chan ges i n g lobal design awa reness a n d tastes, a n d wo rldwide
access through tec h n o l ogy, j ust a s American qui lts went from tru n ks and attics to a rt
m u seu ms a n d a rt co l l ectors' storeroo ms i n the l atter h a lf of the 20th ce ntu ry, the sakiori,
the boro a n d some of the o l d rag rugs, i n d i g en o us household cloths, bed d i n g a n d
domestic ca rpets, even as fra g m e nts, h a v e b e e n studied, exhibited, va l ue d a n d , a t least
to some extent, h ave l ately become " co l l ecti b l e " to i n d ividuals a n d to i n stitutions.
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dolden Ve a le
MALS Thesis
Especi a l ly i n the case of the J a pa nese vern acular textiles I describe h e re , there is
some meas u re of h eroism i n their preservation and co l l ecti o n . Their extre m e uti l itari a n
natu re - - refashi o n ed fro m o ri g i n a l cloth i n g i nto oth er forms o f cloth i ng , then taken
apart and m a d e into bedd i n g o r household cloth, i n c l u d i n g d i a pe rs a n d , s i m p l y re­
made, again, into c l ea n i n g rags a n d poth o l d e rs, or in the case of sakiori, actua l ly torn
into strips and rewove n -- m a kes th e i r
conti nued existence somewhat
rem a rkable. H ow ma ny, m a ny oth e r
exa m p l es a re s i m p ly g o n e ,
and a re we s e e i n g m a i n ly "the best" of
what was deemed, some how,
F ig ure 3 Detail of bo ro; s a s h iko stitching
worthy of p reservati o n?
The practice of m a k i n g s i m p ly wove n , i n expen sive rugs out of recycled (or re­
p u rposed) fa bric strips co ntinues i n th e p resent, in vast q u a ntities, but now at a n
i n d ustria l , n ot domestic s c a l e i n C h i n a , especia l ly. Even on a sm a l l e r, h a n d-woven scale,
i n the 1990's the d a u g hters of the g a rbage men of Ca i ro, Egypt, were taug ht, i n a n effort
to i m p rove th e i r l ives a n d deve l o p m arketable ski l ls, to weave s i m p le rugs fro m the
scraps of fa bric g l ea n ed (a n d c l e a n ed) from the city's trash hea ps. R i g ht n ow, i n I n d i a ,
the vibrant but fra g i l e " ha n d loom " i n d ustry i s i n d a n g e r of beco m i n g obso lete, t h e
res u lt of new l egis lati o n to promote a n d p rotect the co m m erci a l (or p o w e r l oom)
weavi n g i n d u stry.;
An Aesth eti c of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dolden Vea l e
M A LS Thesis
In th e i r 1977 book, The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, Patri cia Cooper and
N o rm a B radley B uferd;; wrote a n o ra l h istory based on the i r conversatio n s and
observations of the women of the Texas Pa n ha ndle and N ew M exico who, i n the l ate
n i n eteenth a nd ea rly twe ntieth centuries, g rew up and ra ised fa m i l ies in essenti a l ly
pioneer househo lds u nder very to u g h circu msta nces, a nd - out of necessity of o n e sort
o r a n other - made q u i lts. I fo und that book i n the C a m b ridge, M assachusetts P u b l i c
Library sometime in the m id-1980's, a nd so began m y ad hoc m ateri a l cu lture studies.
U n able to fi n d a copy for myself u ntil years l ater, I cop i ed, by ha nd, m a ny exce rpts fro m
that book. That exercise had a p rofo u nd effect o n my u ndersta nding of the value of
recording not o n ly the p roducts of these women's way of l ife, but the importa nce of
understandi ng h ow a nd why these exa m p les of do m estic artifacts a re so clea rly a
refl ection of time and cu ltu re, a nd, specifica l ly for me, how the cu lture, ci rcumsta n ce a nd
a certa i n h u m i l ity, i nforms a n d shapes the creatio n - a n d o u r a p p reciation of, o r perhaps
attention to - what h a s been created. Ergo, my co u rse, i n sa i l i n g terms, i n the study of
mate ri a l culture was set.
MALS Acade m i c Structure
The focus of my M aste r of Liberal Arts resea rch a n d
stu dy p rogram a t S kidmore w a s to l ea rn t o l oo k closely
a nd com p a rative ly at specifi c exa m pl es of N o rth American
a nd J a p a nese fo l k texti les from the l ate 19th throu g h the
late-m idd l e 20th centu ry. Their co m mo n a l ity lies i n the
Figure 4 Plain weaving;
cotton warp, rag weft
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M . Dol den Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
basic tech n iq u es (ragweavi ng, tabby (or p l a i n) weavi ng
stru cture, mending a n d patchwork) a n d materi a l s
(recycled fabri cs; especia l ly cotton , natural yarns, a n d
paper) from w h i c h they a re made a n d what mi ght, in
F ig u re 5 Indigo-dyed and
na t u ral rag yarns, Ja pan
m ate ri a l cu lture p a rl a n ce, be termed a " p rovena nce of
context " - one of soci a l , cu ltural a n d e conom i c a u sterity
-- they s h a re , to som e extent. Th e i r s i m i l a r ities a n d t h e i r d iffe re n ces w i l l conti n u e to be
part of the discovery of my futu re research, i n c l u d i n g an exp loration of their h i storica l
a n d geogra p h i ca l contexts from a g lobal perspective.
The MALS cou rsework and semin a rs, resea rc h papers and i nteraction with l i bera l
a rts fa culty steered me i n u n expe cted d i rections - particu l a rly i n terms of socio-cu ltu ra l
history - in my academic
p u rs u its ove r the course
of thre e years of
Skidmore's low-residency
p rog ra m . U n d e r the
STUDIO
WEAVING
superv ision and
g u ida nce of my fa culty
advisor, S a n gwook Lee, p rofessor
F ig ure 6 S t u d io work; a u thor's doc umentation
of Fiber Arts at S kid more, I a l so worked in a studio i nte rn s h i p with a col league of m a ny
ye a rs, a n d a maste r weaver, Cl a u d i a M i l l s.
An Aesth etic of Resou rceful ness
M. Dol den Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
F rom the beg i n n i n g stu dio sessions, in 20 1 3, with C l a u d i a at her s u m m e r studio
i n Westfi e l d , New York, wh e re she described and demonstrated the basics of weavi n g to
me, the n ovice, I was a b l e to apply and integrate, at l east som e of my research a n d
knowledge of fol k texti les - that of Japanese sakiori and o f N orth American ragweav i n g
- t o a n exercise i n wh i ch I l e a r n e d t o weave a n d t o g a i n a s e t o f s k i l ls, however
rudimenta ry. I n so doi n g , those hou rs spent prepa ring fa bric a n d yarns and t h read and
at the loom para l l e l ed the learning of m i l l ions of people ove r centu ries of h u m a n
experience, the world over. And I w a s aware of th at, as I b e g a n a part of w h a t I h ad set
out to a ccompl ish at the outset of the M a sters Prog ra m -- to look c lose ly. And, I fou n d
m y stu dio expe rience h e i g htened b y an awareness o f t h e re leva nce of texti les as the
artifacts of a particu l a r time and place. As the h istori a n La u re n U l rich rema rks, "The
h i story of textiles is fun damenta l ly a story about i nte rn ation a l com merce i n goods a n d
ideas. It is the refore a story about exploitation as wel l as excha n ge, soci a l d isruption a s
we l l as e ntrepre n e u rsh ip, violence as wel l as a esthetics";;; ( U l rich 4 1 4).
An n a J a ckson , writing in her exce l l ent book, " J apanese Country Textiles" in
which s h e describes that col l e ction of the Victori a and A l be rt M u seum, poi nts out,
" Al thou g h perceptions of the past or present can not be overlooke d, we need to be
aware of how ou r u nd e rsta n d i n g of mater i a l culture is formed. M e a n i n g is never fixed; it
is con stantly sh ifti n g . "iv (J ackson, 22.) In l e a r n i n g more a bout the d iscipl i n e of mate ri a l
cu ltu re stu d i es, as we l l as m y own pe rson a l inte rest i n a n d conti n uous study of t h e
a esthetics of t h e s e particu l a r objects, their " m e a n i n g " a n d perhaps the i r cu ltura l va lue
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Veale
M A LS Thesis
has u nfo lded, and "sh ifte d . " M y studies have revealed a n ew, deeper kn owl edge h isto ri cal , physical, and i n th e case of cloth , tactile - of their provenance.
An Aesth etic of Resourcefu l n ess
M. Dolden Ve a le
MALS Thesis
I I. Thesis
In this thesis pape r, I exp l o re, looking eve rmo re close ly, seve ra l specific types of
fo l k text i l es t h at were created d u ri n g a pa rti cu l a r time a n d pl ace in J apa n 's l o n g h istory.
These ve rnacu l a r text i l es
-
sakiori, shifu and boro
-
project, I bel ieve, an a esth etic of
reso u rcefu l n ess a n d I w i l l d escribe the cu ltu ra l context that s u rrounded the people,
wo men a n d m e n that m ade, and used, them. Often, upo n exa m i n ation, these sorts of
h u m b l e, re-pu rposed text i l es a re described as te l l i n g a story by virtu e of the fact that
they incorporate with i n t h e i r structure e l e m e nts of someone's past. This is certa i n l y true
with i n the resea rch and writing o n the tradition of American q u i lts. G en era l ly, in these
Japanese textile examples, it is o n ly possible to describe a n anonymous h i story without
the poss i b i l ity of attrib uti o n to an i nd ividua l . The pieces that survive can, usual ly, only be
tied to a h i sto rica l period, a geograph ical reg i o n and sometimes a particu l a r population,
and th e reso u rces their m akers h a d a ccess to d u ri n g those moments i n their h i sto ry,
which is then reve a led as a part of the " story" these textiles te l l .
I w i l l g o i nto further deta i l i n l ater sectio n s, but for c l a rity h e re a re brief, n o n­
tech n i ca l d efin itions of the t h re e specific vern a c u l a r texti l es that are the focus of this
study:
Shifu
"Shifu is c loth
Figure 7 Ja panese account book; mulberr y pa per
woven fro m
spun o r twisted paper, m ostly from speci a l kinds of was h i (J apa n ese h a ndmade pape r).
Some shifu is not made e nt i re ly of paper, but with a s i l k o r cotton (or oth e r) wa rp. Fo r
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dolden Vea l e
MALS Thesis
centuries i n J a p a n , sh ifu has been put to many uses, but p ri m a ri l y it has been sewn i nto
cloth i n g . Alth o u g h its m a n ufacture is labor-i ntensive, shifu has been a m ateri a l che a p ly
had - yo u co u ld weave it o ut of any o l d acco u nt book. As c l oth i n g , sh ifu keeps th e wind
out a n d wa rmth in. If it g ets wet, th e paper th reads expand and a l so seal i n the h eat,
ve ry u sefu l if you a re , say, a fish e rm a n . B ut th i s u n affected cloth can a lso be, l i ke the
paper fro m which it i s m ade, g e ntle, h u m ble and h u m a n e - a n d exqu isitely beaut ifu l . " v
Su key H u ghes i n a review of A Song of Praise, by Susan J . Byrd . (Byrd, cover)
Figure 8 S h i fu fabric made from recycled account book that has
been cut into stri ps, then s pun into " yarn " (bottom right) . The
black "dots" in the fabric are from the ink used in the account
books
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
MALS Thesis
M. D o l den Vea le
Sakiori
Cotton reached n o rthern J a p a n in the m id-1 91h centu ry, by sea, in b u n d l es of rags; it was
then sold a n d sorted a n d washed and stitched i nto la rger, usa b l e swathes of pieced
goods, (sashiko or boro) o r torn to fo rm t h i n strips of c l oth
used a s rag yarn weft for the wove n p roduct, sakiori.
Accord i n g to an expert in vern acu l a r J ap a n ese texti les,
Ste p h e n Szczepa n ec k, and many oth e rs, sakiori i s a n
i n ve nted term: 'saku' i n J a p a nese means 'to tear'; a n d ' oru', to
F igure 9 S a k iori det a i l;
cotton w a r p, cotton r ag
weave. I n e a rl ie r forms of sakiori, the warp wou ld have been some
weft
type of bast fiber; hemp ofte n, but wisteria, n ettle and l i n den were also used; l ater,
cotton ya rns beca m e the n o rm fo r s akiori's warp. Ea rly sakiori were cha racteri sti ca l ly
b l u e, fash ioned from i n d ig o-dyed, u sed kimono; cast offs from J a p a n 's city dwe l l ers.
Bora and Sashiko
" N ot j u st ro l l s of soft cotton yardage, but a ny
scraps of o l d cloth were covete d commodities to the
poor fo l k of To h o ku [In Aomori, n o rthern J a p a n ] . The
tin iest precious snippets we re saved .
. . . They soaked worn-out o l d c lothes i n ricerinsi n g water, n eve r wasting the l east scrap, stitc h i n g
Figure 1 0 Ba ro futon cove r; date
unknown
An Aesthetic of Resourcefulness
M. Dolden Vea l e
MALS Thesis
over ripped and ragged l aye rs as thick as they coul d . O r else, they cut it i nto th i n
ribbons, wh i ch they re-loomed with h e m p wa rps i nto d isti n ct ive nubby sakiori - l itera l ly
" tea r-woven " - c l oth . " vi(B o ro, 3) The run n i n g stitch that was used, generally i n a w h ite
cotton thread, is known as sashiko, and has itse lf become part of the l exicon that defi n es
the p a rticu l a r p roperties of boro. ( I n a n atte mpt fo r clarity: Some accounts appear to
refer to sashiko cloth in a s i m i l a r way to that which is now used to describe boro. But
sashiko stitching appears n ot o n l y as the h o l d i n g stitch for fash i o n i n g whole p ie ces of
cloth from recyc led rags: it was a l so used, somet i m es deco ratively, but a l m ost a lways
with the a i m towa rds stren gth e n i n g a reas of a g a rment or h ouse hold text i l e where it was
appl ied.)
H istory, Aesth eti cs a n d Reso n a n ce
I n 1 994 The San Fran cisco A rt & C raft Museum m ounted a m aj o r ex h i b ition:
Riches from Rags: Saki-Ori & Other Recycling Traditions in Japanese Rural Clothing. In
the exhibition cata logue of the same name and auth ored by the textile expe rts Sh in­
l c h i ro Yosh ida a n d Dai W i l l i a m s, the museum's D i rector, J. We ldon S m ith, i n troduces
"What m ig h t be ca l l e d "an aesthetic of poverty" [author's e m phas is] wh ich p roduced
un ique beautiful fa bri cs a n d stun n i ng costume des i g ns . " vii It was that aspect of poverty
that I focused on fo r much of my i n itial m aterial culture-based exa m i nation of the
co ntext i n which these ve rnacu l a r texti l es were created . But perhaps in the " s h ift" that I
have experie nced -- l ess a s h ift than a deepeni ng, m o re com p lex view -- is that which
a l l ows m e to refe r, m o re a ccurate ly, I th i n k, to " an aesthetic of resourcefulness."
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Vea l e
MALS Thesis
I n th e cata logue acco m panying the 2011 exh i b it Mottainai: The Fabric of Life;
Lessons in Frugality from Traditional Japan at Portl and's J a p a nese G a rden, Diane
Dursto n , the G a rden's Curator of Cu ltu re, Art a n d Education wrote:
There is m uch the world can l e a rn from J a p a n ese cu ltu re . Mottai was ori g i n a l ly a
B u d d h ist term t h at referred to the " essence of t h i n gs. " Applied to everyth i n g i n
o u r physical un iverse, t h e wo rd suggests that obj ects do n ot l ive i n isolation but
a re intri nsica l ly l i n ked to one a noth er. "Nai" i s a n egation, so "m ottainai" is a n
exp ress i o n o f sad ness for t h e disrespect th at i s s h own w h e n a n y l iving o r
n o n l iving entity is wasted . It i s very m u ch i n l i n e with today's efforts t o p ro m ote
the " 3 Rs " : to reduce waste, reuse fin ite resou rces, a n d recycl e what we ca n . " viii
(Du rston , 2)
And so, in this research paper, we w i l l m ove, fi rst, from D u rston's, the a uthor's
and th e readers' own conte m porary viewpoi nts back into the p l aces and h isto ries that
defi n ed a cu ltu re and people who made these texti les. " O ri g i n a l l y . . . recycl i n g
tech n i q ues were appl ied t o cloth m a d e from trad iti o n a l bast fibe rs. Later these were
rep l aced by cotto n . . . However, the bea uty i n h e re nt in both fo rms of co m m on ers'
cloth i n g springs from the s a m e source . . . the fru g a l ity of their l ife a n d the virtuosity of
their labor. " (Wi l l i a ms and Yos h i d a , 8.) And it is i m p o rtant to po i nt out that this is a n
exp l o ration o f a sca rce ly docum ented g ro u p o f textiles - th at o f the com mon Japanese
people of the Edo a n d M e ij i pe riods. In the Edo period at l east 90% of the e nti re
popu lation were the rural poor - fa rm e rs, fish e rm a n a n d woodsm e n a n d their fa m i l ies
who l ived essenti a l l y in serfdom to the local l o rds or daimyos. " W h i l e the powe r a n d
p restige o f J a p a n ' s r u l i n g a n d wea lthy e l ite ensu red that many o f the textiles t h e y used
were ca refu l ly preserved, the be l i ef that the textiles of the co m m o n people a re worthy of
p reservati on is a rel ative ly recent p h e no m e n o n . " Anna J a ckson writes in describ i n g the
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dolden Ve ale
MALS Thesis
cou ntry text i l e co l lection at the Victo ria & Albert M u se u m . " As a result older exa m p les
rarely s u rvive. " (J acks o n , 28.)
An a rticle from The International New York Tim es on M ay 1 2, 201 5 d escribes the
rece nt a rch aeol o g ical d iscove ry of the rem a i n s of a m ed i eva l hospita l ' s cem etery fo r the
i n d i gent poor s m ack-dab i n the center of Paris' Seco n d Arro n d issement: P i e rre Va l l a l ,
dep uty reg i o n a l d i recto r o f t h e French N at i o n a l I nstitute fo r Preventive Arch aeo logy
(I N RA) was quote d : "The h istory of th is hospita l rea lly b e a rs witn ess to th e who le h istory
of Fra nce. Th is is a tota l h istory, not j ust the h istory of the rich and fa mous. This isn't
Ve rs a i l l es . " ix I th i n k it i s valid, in the case of looking at these verna c u l a r text i l es to
appro ac h this part of the h istory of J a pan i n m u ch the sa m e way - as a tota l h istory - that
is i n c l u s i o n a ry and com prehensive.
In later sections and at the co nclusion of this paper, I will look more closely at
what perhaps is sti l l, fo r me, th e outsta n d i n g question. H ow a n d why m y own e m b racing
interest i n shifu, sakiori and boro texti les, a n d the inte rest of oth e rs in the conte m p o ra ry
world, essent i a l l y " th ro u g h Weste rn eyes, " co ntinues to reso nate. When I fi rst ca me to
this topic, it was with a somewhat n a·lve accepta n ce of these p ieces of cloth being born
out l ives of d i re poverty and drea dfu l l ife ci rcumsta n ce . As this resea rch i nto the co ntext
in which they were created has continued, I sti l l bel ieve that the aspect of
resourcefulness is a n essential, a n d defi n i n g , cha racteristic. B ut I sha l l poke a gentle
hole, I bel ieve, i n my own overly s i m p l istic assumption of what they reve a l . Desp ite the
dearth of accu rate docum e ntation, the fra g i l ity and e p h e m era l nature of th e textiles, and
their very sca rcity, " . . . it is sti l l poss i b l e to reco n struct someth i n g of the textile's past. . . .
An Aesth eti c of Resourcefulness
M. Dolden Vea le
MALS Thesis
cloth has a g reat capa city fo r commun i cati o n . It i s a s i g n ificant site of p e rs o n a l , social
a n d cultural identity, s i n ce i n d i cati o n s of status, wealth, g e n d e r, r e l i g i ous b e l i efs and
ideological va lues can be wove n i nto its appearance . " (J ackson, 28.) These fo l k texti les,
perhaps quite s i g n ifica ntly, appear i n iti a l ly to be a nti -status, a nti-id entity, and a nti­
ideol ogy. " Ti m e l es s " , " s i m ple " , " a n onym ous " are descri ptors often use d . And yet, we
a re jud g i n g through a contem porary, Weste rn lens. T h e i r beauty is in fact "time l ess " to
me, a n d I bel ieve they have more to revea l a n d we, n ow well i nto the first qua rter of the
2 1 '1 ce ntury, a re l oo k i n g at th em diffe rently, a g a i n . The " materi a l " deserves a n oth er
look.
I l l . A P l a ce in Time
G e o g raphy a n d G eo logy
The arch i p e l a g o of i s l a n d s that i s J a pa n resulted from a d ra m atic geological
i n cident 1 8,000 to 30,000 years a go, when the l a n d mass that was then a part of the
eastern coast of the Asi a n m a i n l a nd , in
a v i o l e nt, " mounta i n-bui l d i n g " rupture,
was torn away. The resulti n g " a rcshaped, l i ke a bow tig htly strun g " curve
of islands l ies, x (Wi l l ia m s a n d Yosh ida,
9) variously and roughly o n a n o rtheast
to southwest axis, 200 to 500 m i l es off
the exist i n g coasts of Russia, C h i n a a n d
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M . Dolden Vea l e
MALS Thesis
Korea, is m o u nta i nous and volcanic in p rofi l e, and i n perso n a l ity. There h ave been at
le ast fou r catastrop h i c earthqua kes s i nce the beg i n n i n g of the 1 71h centu ry. The entire
cou ntry's ide ntity as a n i s l a n d is i m p o rtant n ot o n l y geographical ly, but a lso i n te rms of
p lace; s u rrounded by the seas that sepa rate it, l itera l ly, from the rest of th e world.
The fl ats, n ow m ostly cu ltivated fiel ds, a re " me re a dj u n cts to the m o u ntains, "
(Wi l l ia m s a n d Yosh ida, 1 0) a n d the l a ndscape is n ota b l e for deep, h eavily forested
fiss u res of rock, steep a n d r u n n i ng rive rs e m ptyi ng, in one d i rection, i nto the i nterior
fl atl a n ds, carry i n g a l l uvial soils; in a n other, fl owi ng into the sea, often swo l l e n by
fl oodwaters, wit h i n coastlines of often d ra m atic h e i g hts rising fro m the Sea of J a pan to
the west a n d the Pacific Ocean to the east of the a rch i p e l a g o . G en e rally, the i n l a n d, o r
western, coast i s subject t o th e c o l d cu rrents a n d co lder c l i m ate patte rns e m a nati n g a n d
cross i n g from S ibe ria, C h i n a a n d Korea; warm e r cu rrents buffet the eastern coast a l o n g
t h e Pacific a n d t h e c l i m ate is wetter, a n d m o re h u m i d . O ki n awa's southernm ost
co l l ecti o n of islands is sub-tro p i c a l ; H o kkaido, the l a rge n o rthe rnmost island experiences
Siberia n-strong wi nters.
'Uruhonshu' or Aomo ri, the n o rth-facing reg i on of H o n s h u (th e m a i n i s l a n d of
J a p a n), h e m m ed in by m o u ntains and fa cing th e Sea of J a p a n, is refe rred to as
"yukiguni" or snow cou ntry. This is the re gion fro m which the trad iti o n a l weavi n g of
sakiori is m ost ide ntified, th o u g h the m a k i n g of sakiori texti les was certa i n l y n ot excl usive
to A o m o ri . It was a l o ng J a p a n ' s western coast, fronting the I n la n d Sea of J a pan, at
s h i p p i n g ports esta b l ished d u ri n g the l ate 1 6th centu ry, that the kitamaesen
-
'fl oati ng
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M . Dolden Veale
MALS Thesis
marketplaces" stopped to se l l an d trad e b u n d l es of
rags and old clothes g l eaned from the c ities, i n effect
fe rryi n g cotton to places where it co u l d n ot g row.
The h istory of sakiori, and boro, I bel i eve, is
l i n ked, without q u estion, to the widespread
i ntro d u ction of cotton to Japan's u rban society that
Figure 11 Detail; work coat with
occu rred, general ly, d u ri n g the Edo period and
sakiori body and sashiko-stitched
collar
o nward . Crucially, relative to these textiles'
development, the kitamaesen sh ipping routes along th e I n land Sea coast and n o rth
b ro u g ht used and d iscarded c l oth n o rth to the people l ivi n g in remote fis h i n g and
m o u nta i n e n c laves that had had, fo r generati ons, very l ittl e i n the way of phys ical
con nection to any co m m o d ities, o u tsiders or oth e r cultures. B ut th e Japanese culture of
weav i n g and c l oth i n g pro d u ction " exte nds back to a ti m e seve ral h u n d reds and,
perhaps, tho usands of years before C h rist. " (Wi l l iams and Yoshi da, 1 1 ) The trad itions of
early bast weaving, i n c l u d i n g shifu, which specifica l l y incorporates paper th read and
yarns, usually i n co mbi nation with bast fi ber warps, was not existentially depe ndent on
the i mportation of cotton, and shifu and bast-related weavi n g (extant pieces are q u ite
rare a n d frag i l e by their ve ry natu re) preceded sakiori. The ancient bast weav i n g
trad iti o n was n ot exclusive t o the northern re g ions; bast fib e rs were u s e d for weaving,
pre-cotto n , a l l ove r Japan, but wh ere the c l i mate was harshest its use, th o u g h extrem e l y
d ifficu lt and ti m e-consu m i n g i n the maki ng, co ntin ue d e v e n after cotton b ecam e
avai lab l e . A t l east i n its tough est form, tafu o r " th ick cloth, " fas h ioned fro m the bark of
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Veale
MALS Thesis
the paper m u l b e rry, (Wi l l iams and Yos h i da, 1 7) conti nued to be mad e fo r heavy work
cloth i n g , as were the very thickest exampl es of sakiori, for pad d i n g and stre ngth, made
and worn, at l east i n n o rthern provi n ces, u ntil the early 201h centu ry. (See F i g u re 1 1 ).
Social , Pol itical and Eco n o m ic H istory
A S i mple Chrono logy of Japan ese H istory
Early
From pre h i sto ric to
71 0 A. D.
Classical
N ara Period
71 0-794
H eian Period
794- 1 1 85
M i d d l e Ages
Kamaku ra Pe riod
1 1 85-1 336
M u ro mach i Period
1 336- 1 573
M o m oyama Per iod
1 573- 1 6 1 5
Toku gawa (or Edo) Age
Eda Period
1 6 1 5-1 868
M odern Age
M e ij i Period
1 868- 1 91 2
Taisho Period
1 9 1 2-1 926
Sh owa Period
1 926- 1 989
H e isei Period
1 989-
The Eda, or Toku gawa, period, as it is also known, was a span of time of
" secl uded peace , " after centu ries of wars and d isruption i n Japan . D u r i n g this t i m e ,
expans i o n of t h e n ational e c o n o m y i ncluded d ramatic i mprove m ents to i n frastru cture
and tran sportatio n , co m me rce, and l iteracy. The Toku gawa shogu nate (bakufu), based in
Edo (what is n ow Tokyo), h e l d the real pol itical authority. The i mperial court continued,
An Aesthetic of Reso u rcefu l ness
M. Dolden Vea l e
MALS Thesis
but o n l y with n o m i n a l a uthority. The bakuhan was strong and conservative, e nforci n g
strict soci a l pol icies i n t h e cou ntry, a l on g with t h e reg i o n a l m i l itary l o rds (da imyo) w h o
ruled th e i r own d o m a i ns (han). Al l trade a n d exch a n g e a b road w a s very stri ctly l i m ited,
a l m ost to the point of co m p lete p roh ibition . Th e p o p u l ation n ea r l y doubled over the
course of this period - a trem endous rate of g rowth -- from about 18 m i l l ion in 1 600 to
more t h a n 30 m i l l i on at the beg i n n i n g of the 1 9th ce ntu ry.
D u r i n g th e first 200 years of the Edo Period, about 90% of the popu lation l ived
on and wo rked the l a nd, "their l ife fu l l of o ppress i o n " (Wi l l ia m s a n d Yosh ida, 1 6) . The
shog u n Ieyasu, who fo u n ded the To kugawa s h o g u n ate in 1 603, was q u oted by a
Confuci a n sch o l a r : "With the farmers the idea is to j ust keep them a l ive, not to a l l ow
them to starve or freeze. If yo u a l l ow them to get too wea lthy they won't work the l a n d .
They a re l i ke rapeseeds. T h e more y o u p ress t h e m , the m o re y o u g e t from the m . "
B u t d u r i n g th is time t h e m e rchant a n d a rtisan cl asses th rived. Esta b l ished cities
l i ke Osa ka and Kyoto p rospered; eve n u rban members of the sam u ra i cl ass, as wel l as
the a rtisans and m e rcha nts - th e new " m iddle cl ass " -- too k p a rt in the g rowth of what
were known a s the " p l e a s u re q u a rters " - a b i g-city a g g regation of tea h o uses, theaters,
resta u ra nts, and the atte n d a nt courtesans, e nterta i n e rs and p rostitutes. N ew fo rms of
enterta i n m e nt - d ra m a ( N o h theater), l iterature, p a i nting a n d printma k i n g e m e rged.
Com m erce a n d fa s h i o n , i n the cities, g a i ned a level of p a rticu l a r soph i sticatio n .
T h e woodblock pri nts of t h e t i m e (Fi g u re 1 2) p rovide t o us a rich visu a l h i sto ry o f this
u rb a n na i ssa n ce and the fash ions, o r iki, i n fa bric and cloth i n g .
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dolden Veale
MALS Thesis
Figure 12 Toyokuni; Woodblock print, 1820's. Crowds
on the Ryogoku Bridge
The fi nal s h o g u n s we re th ose of the Toku gawa clan, who h ad come to power in
1 603 and ruled u nt i l 1 868. Tokugawa I eyasu, the fou nd e r of th e dynasty, b u i lt the new
capital i n Eda. H is g randson l e m itsu compl eted the n ational iso lation pol icy. The
shoguns had establ i s h ed a strict class syste m , with the sam u rai (warriors) at the top (but
under th e s h o g u n s and then, the daimyo), fo l l owed by farmers, artisans and me rchants.
I m med iate ly u nd e r the s h o g u n s were the l o rds with the titl e daimyo, each of whom ruled
a part of Japan and to whom the com m o n e rs paid taxes.
I n the Eda period, the conti n ue d prosperity that came with peace b rought
eventual changes to the c lass system. Peace and stab i l ity l eft the s h o g u ns without wars
to fi g ht and th ey, as a class, became landowners, l ess able to capital ize on the i r vast
h o l d i ngs. The artisans i n the cities and the m e rc hants becam e wealth ier, and wealth ier.
Farmers i ncreased the i r pro d u ct ivity, i mprovem e nts to i n frastructu re gave them access
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Do lden Veale
MALS Thesis
to markets, the popu lation was growing and demand was h i g h not only fo r food, but
tim ber, cotton and s i l k, i n d i g o and oth e r dyes, and, paper. M o re people n eeded m o re
t h i ngs.
Pe rhaps i n evitably, fro m the m i d-1 91h ce ntu ry, there was a sh ift from the
isolation ism and co nservative pol icies of the fi rst 200 years of the s h og u n -do m i nated
Eda period. N otably, US N avy Commodore Matthew Perry, arrivi ng in U raga in 1 853,
forced, in effect, Japan to open up to the world. The Treaty of Peace and Am ity betwee n
Japan a n d th e U S was s i g n e d i n 1 854, and with i n fo ur years comm e rce treaties were
con cluded By Japan with many oth e r countries. By 1 867 th e Eda shogunate, the last, fe l l .
The 1 4-year o l d E m p e ro r M utsuh ito was " restored " , Eda was re- named Tokyo, and the
M e ij i ( " e n l ig htened ru l e " ) Restoration was u n d e rway.
The M eij i Restoration
D u r i n g this period, the island nation became m o re nati onal i stic i n identity as the
daimyo l ost control of the reg i o n s and central ized g overn ment took hold. In th e name of
Em peror M e ij i , n u m e rous stri k i n g and far-reach i n g social, pol itical , and eco n o m i c
changes were l e g i slated t h ro u g h a series o f ed icts . Japan o p e n e d its borde rs; se n d i n g
several h i g h-ran king exped iti o n s abroad a n d inviti n g fo rei g n advisors - i n c l u d i n g
educators, e n g i neers, arch itects, pai nte rs a n d scie ntists - t o assist the J apan ese i n
rap i d ly abso rbing m od e rn tech n o l ogy a n d Weste rn knowledge.
"Throu g h o ut the centu ry, howeve r, th e d rive to Weste rnize is paralleled by
conti n ued iso lation ist te ndencies and a des i re to res ist fo re i g n i nflue nces. Eventual ly, as
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefulness
M. Dol den Veale
MALS Thesis
has happened n u m e rous times i n the nation's h i story, after the J apanese ass i m i late what
has be e n bo rrowed, they use these imports to fo rmu late a new but d i sti n ctly J apanese
modern society. " xi ( H e i l b r u n n ) As an exam ple, " Knowledge of the soph istication and
h i g h qual ity of fo re i g n te ch nolog ies m i g ht be one of th e reasons that weavers in Kyoto
were i nsp ired to go to Lyo n , France, as soon as the national borders were re opened to
the rest of the world. In 1 872, o n l y five years afte r the M e ij i Resto ration, three weavers
from the Kyoto's N is h ij i n weaving d istrict went to Lyon to study the Jacquard
mechan i s m . " xii (Ko bayas h i , 388) In h e r research i nto kasuri, among oth e r tech n i ques,
Keiko Kobayas h i , fou n d that the i m port of some textiles - C h i nese, I n dian, Dutch and
E n glish -- i nto th e n-closed J apan (in exchange fo r copper) had an i m pact on texti l e
" fas h i on , " a n d that w h e n t h e borders opened t h e J apanese were eag er t o l earn not only
the fore i g n tec h n iq ues, but then to adapt t h e i r own m echanisms and tech n iques to
produce a un iquely J apanese version of the imports in favor. Agai n , the cloth tel ls a
sto ry thro u g h its p rove nance.
Sometime in the late 1 Sth centu ry cotton cu ltivation first came to Japan by way of
Ko rea and C h i na (and possibly t h ro u g h , o r by way of, Oki nawa) . By the m i d-1 8th century
cotton becam e " a fixture of eve ryday l ife " (Szcze pan ek i n Du rsto n , 34), though not by
any means, to most J apanese common ers. Up u ntil th e m i d- 1 9th centu ry, cotto n was
g rown, d o m estically; again, it m u st be stated that the cu ltu re of s p i n n i n g and weaving
cloth was e n d e m i c. "For centu ries, J apanese farmers had g rown , s p u n , and wove n
cotton i n t h e i r h o useh o l ds fo r dom estic consumption and l ocal markets. By the
n i n eteenth ce ntu ry a th riving puttin g-out i n d u stry had em erged in the cou ntrys ide, an
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Do l den Veale
MALS Thesis
industry that at first received an enormous boost from the i m p o rtati on of cheap yarns
[from C h i na] i n the wake of th e forced ope n i ng of Japan 's ports. "xiii (Be cke rt, 402)
N otab ly, in 1 880 S h ibusawa E i i c h i fo u n ded the Osaka S p i n n i n g M i l l with some 1 0, 000
s p i n d les and h u n d reds of ru ral wo men were brou g ht i n to work i n the m i l l s . What was
also " i m porte d " was a pate rnal istic management stru ctu re, as was the norm i n the m i l ls
of N ew E n g land i n the U n ited States and i n G reat B ritai n .
Isabella Lucy B i rd - A Val uab l e O bserve r of Japan i n 1 878
I n 1 878, when the i n tre pid explore r and w riter Isabella Lucy B i rd sai l ed i nto
Yokohama Harbor in J apan aboard th e s h i p " C ity of To kio, " s h e was about to begin an
adve nture i n a co u ntry that had been open to the " m odern " outs i de world fo r only 24
years, after 250 years of n ear-compl ete isolati o n. Eve n then, at the early part of what is
known as the M e ij i Restoration period, J apan 's rap i d adoption of n ew gove rnment
structu res and i n d u strial ization, i n frastru cture b u i l d i n g and integrati o n of the mai n ly
agricultural and rem ote v i l l ages to the cities was h i g h ly evident. Th e popu latio n was
about 34 m i l l i o n " s o u l s " ( B i rd, 1.7).xiv
And I sab e l la Lucy B i rd was anxious to stri ke out o n h e r own and l eave what she,
even then, considere d the al ready too-transfo rmed u rban cente rs, that had been
exhaustive ly (if n ot accurate ly), in her view, described by oth e r writers to the i nterested
rest of th e E n g l i sh-speaking world.
" F ro m N i kko n o rthwards my route was altog eth e r off the beaten track, and had
never been traversed in its enti rety by any E u ropean. I l ived am o n g the J apan ese, an d
An Aesthetic of Resourceful ness
M. Dol den Vea l e
M A L S Thesis
saw their mode of l iving, i n regions unaffected by E u ropea n contact. As a l a dy trave l l i ng
a lone, a n d the first E u rope a n lady who h a d been seen i n seve ral d istricts throu g h which
my route l ay, my exp e rie nces diffe red more or less widely from those of the p reced i n g
trave l l e rs; a n d I a m a b l e t o offe r a fu l l e r a ccou nt of t h e a borig i nes of Yezo, obta i n e d by
a ctual a cq u a i nta n ce with them, th a n has hitherto been g ive n . " ( B i rd , I .vi-vi i . ) . And off the
beaten track she went, descri b i n g i n g re at (if at times, forg ivi n g ly Victori a n) deta i l , the
l a n dscapes, p eople, customs, a n i m a l s , trees, flowers, h a rdships, weath e r, food and lack
the reof, and ritua l s, th ro u g h a series of l etters to h e r a i l i n g s ister back in E d i n b u rg h .
S h e w a s adept a n d d i l igent i n h e r correspondence, a m a z i n g l y so. I n h e r descri ptive
lette rs, we can see h e r -- afte r days spent in d re n ch i n g rain on horseback (sidesa d d l e,
sometimes, a stride, at othe rs) with only oiled paper waterp roofi ng to cover h e r, ove r
stee p a n d practi cally non-existe nt mounta i n paths a ccom pan ied o n ly by h e r you n g ,
com p l a i n i n g b u t eve r-h e l pfu l J a pa n ese transl ator, writing - - by the l i ght of smoky o i l
housed in a paper l a ntern, i n a s m a l l shoj i-scree ned room i n a J a panese cou ntry i n n . We
can see h e r m a ki n g h e r notes, a n d compos i n g h e r l etters hom e , a l l the wh i l e m i n dful
that they wou ld eve ntu a l l y be publ ished in book form . And oth e rs, too, saw her back
then: m a ny times, a s she recou nted, she wou l d look u p from her w riti ng, or from h e r
p a l l et o n the floor, to eyes peeri n g at h e r th rou g h holes i n t h e paper of th e room's shoji
screen walls.
What strikes the reader of B i rd's Unbeaten Tracks i n Japan i s the i m m e d i a cy of
the s i m p l e, uned ucated, u nworl d ly pop u l ation she m eets. By trave l l i n g i nto the more,
actua l ly, very remote regions of 1 870's J a p a n , she was, l itera l ly, trave l l i n g back in time,
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
pre- M eij i period perha ps. In the case of her trip into Yezo (Hokka ido) among the
abori g i n a l peop le, the A i n u , she exp e rie nced what l ife m i g ht have been, general ly, in
m u ch of rural J a p a n d u r i n g the early years of the Edo period. Perhaps that experience
was, simply, time less.
The adva n ces that were qu ickly tra nsform i n g the cities, towns and some ports
into diffe rent societies had barely reached many of the places she describes, a n d so, we
the readers of Unbeaten Tracks get vivid g l i m pses of the ways of l ife i n ru ra l " O l d
J a pa n " , throu g h t h e l e n s of a n exceptio n a l l y adve ntu rous, a n d dete rm i ned wom a n of
the l ate 1 91h ce ntury. Isabe l l a B i rd was the first wom a n , ever, to be named a Fe l low of
the h e n ceforth-m a l e Roya l Geogra p h i c Society. (A we l l deserved, if hotly contested,
ach ieve m e nt after having p u b lished books about h e r travels to the Sandwich I s l a n ds
(H awa i i) , th e Rocky Mou nta ins, C h i n a , Korea and the M a l ay P e n i n s u l a , a mong oth ers.)
And Japan was u n ique, to some deg ree, as a conseque nce of its lon g i solation . "I was
entirely u n p repa red for the apparent pove rty a n d real d i rt a n d d iscomfort I have seen
s i n ce leavi ng N i kko. With u s [Bird was from E d i n b u rgh] pove rty of the squa l id kind is
us u a l l y assoc iated with l az i ness and d ru n ken ness, but h e re th e first i s un known, and the
last is rare among the peasa nt p rop rietors. Th e i r i n d ustry is ceasel ess; they have no
Sa bbaths, a n d on ly take a hol i d ay when they h ave noth i n g to do. Th e i r spade husb a n d ry
turns th e cou ntry into one bea utifu l ly kept g a rden, i n which one m i ght look va i n ly for a
wee d . They a re econom ical a n d t h rifty, a n d turn everyt h i n g to usefu l a ccou nt . . . The
appearance of poverty may be p rod uced by a p athy reg a rd i n g comforts to which they
have not been accustomed.
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dol den Vea l e
MALS Thesis
These peop l e wea r no l i n e n [underwear], and their clothes, which a re seldom
washed, are constantly worn , n i g ht and day, as lon g as they will hold togethe r." (B i rd, I.
170-1)
H e r accou nt, rel ative to the clot h i n g of the com mon e rs, or som etimes the l ack of
it, the spread i n g access to cotton , new a n d used, a n d p reva l e nt ru ra l h a nd weavi n g
trad itions, a d d s some ve ry re a l background t o our und e rsta n d i n g - - not h e a rsay, or ju st
s i m p l y c l u es -- of where a n d how the fol k textiles k nown as sakiori, shifu a n d boro came
to be. As B i rd did -- i n h e r trip to what she ca l le d Yezo, and is now known as H okka i do,
to stay with a n d record the l a n g u a ge, customs a n d l ives of J a p a n ' s a bori g i n a l people,
the Ainu -- we ca n a l so experi e n ce , to some exte nt, the " travel back i n time" that is both
demanded a n d afforded by ou r study of the e a rl iest a nteced e nts of these vern a cu l a r
text i les.
I n this exce rpt from what see ms to be, for h er, one of the most com p e l l i n g , if
d ifficu lt of h e r experi e n ces in J a p a n, she p roceeds into what we wou l d now describe as a
stu dy of m aterial cu ltu re. She is descri b i n g what ethnograph e rs a n d h istorians cou nt as
one of the e a r l i est forms of weav i n g cloth - t h at of bast fiber, (wa rp and weft) and the
tech n i q ues used for weav i n g b ast i nto cloth . It is, in tec h n i q u e if not i n exact type of
bast fiber, what had been the basis for work c loth i n g made from the i n n e r bark of
ava i l a b l e trees a n d of g ra ss fi bers, i n J a p a n , for centuries, a n d before cotton became
widely ava i l a b l e in north ern J a pa n . Even after, until the m i d-201h centu ry, when cotton
did not se rve the need for stre n gth of c loth to cush ion a heavy load, or p roved to be,
sti l l , too expens ive for a n ative pop u l ation l i v i n g in extre m e con d itions, bast fiber
An Aesth eti c of Resou rcefu l n ess
MALS Thesis
M. Dolden Ve a l e
weaving was e m p loyed, and valued. In the case of the Ai n u , the i n n er b a rk of e l m
(Wi l l ia m s a n d Yos h i d a , 1 7 ) w a s turned into t h e thread for weavi ng t h e cloth that wou l d
become clot h i n g .
She writes o f h e r expe rience l iving with t h e A i n u peop l e o f H okkaido:
"The wom e n a re occup ied a l l day, as I h ave before said. They look cheerfu l and
even me rry when they s m i le, and a re n ot l i ke the J a pa n ese
[ma i n l a nders] , p re m at u re ly old, p a rtly beca use th e i r houses a re
well -ve nti l ated, a n d the use of cha rcoa l is un know n . I do not
thi n k they u n dergo the u n m itig ated d ru d ge ry which fa l ls to lot
of m ost sava ge wom e n , thou g h they work h a rd . The m e n do
n ot l i ke them to spea k to stra n g e rs, however, a n d say th at th e i r
p l a ce is to work a n d raise c h i ld ren . They e a t o f the same food ,
a n d at the s a m e time a s t h e m e n , l a u g h a n d ta l k before t h e m ,
a n d receive e q u a l s u pport a n d respect i n old age. T h e y s e l l
m ats a n d ba rk-cloth i n the p iece, a n d made up, w h e n they can,
a n d their h usbands do not ta ke t h e i r earnings from them. All
Ai no wom e n u n d e rsta n d the m a ki n g of bark cloth . The m e n
S
WW AVJIB'& 8BUTTLB0
bring i n the b a rk i n stri ps, five feet lon g , havi n g removed the
Figure 1 3
outer coati n g . This inner bark i s easily sepa rated into seve ra l
Ainu weaver's
Illustration of an
t h i n l ayers, which a re s p l it i nto very n a rrow strips by the older
shuttle from
Unbeaten
Tracks in Japan
wom e n , ve ry neatly knotted, a n d wou nd into b a l l s we i g h i n g a bout a pou n d each.
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dolden Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
N o p repa ration of either the bark or th e thread is req u i red to fit it for weaving,
but I observe th at some of the wom e n stee p it i n a d ecoction of a bark which
p rodu ces a brown dye to deepen the buff tint.
The loom i s so s i m p l e that I a l most fea r to represent it as com p l i cated by
d escri ptio n . It cons ists of a stout hook fixed in the floor, to which the threads of
the fa r end of th e web a re secured, a cord faste n i n g the nea r e n d to the wa ist of
the worker, who s u p p l ies, by dexterous rigidity, the necessa ry te nsion; a fra m e
l ike a com b resti n g o n the a n kles, t h roug h which the threads pass, a hol low rol l
for kee p i n g the upper a n d under t h reads sepa rate, a spatu l a-shaped s h u ttle of
e n g raved wood, a n d a rol l e r on which the c loth is rol l ed as it is made. The l en gth
of the web is fifteen feet and the width of the cloth i s fiftee n i nches. It is woven
with great reg u l a rity a n d the knots in the thread a re ca refu l ly kept on the
u n d e rside. It is a very slow a n d fat i g u i n g p rocess, a n d a wom a n can not do much
more t h a n a foot a day. The weaver sits on the floor with the whole a rra n gement
attached to h e r wa ist, a n d the loom, if such it may be cal led, on h e r a n kles. It
takes long p ra ctice before she ca n supply the n ecessa ry te n s ion by s p i n a l rig i d ity.
As th e work p roce eds, s h e d rags h erself a l most i m pe rce pti bly n earer th e hook.
Figure 14 Backstra p loom and weaver
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dol den Vea l e
MALS Thesis
In th i s house and othe r l a rg e ones two or three wom en bring in their webs in the
mor n i n g , fix their hooks, a n d weave a l l day, w h i l e oth e rs, who h ave not e q u a l
advantages, put t h e i r hooks i n the g rou n d a n d weave i n the s u n s h i n e . The web
a n d loom can be b u n d l ed up in two m i n utes, and ca rried away q u ite as easily as
a kn itted sofa b l a n ket. It is the s i m p lest a n d perhaps most p r i m itive form of handloom, a n d com b, sh uttle, a n d rol l , a re a l l easily fash ioned with a n ord i n a ry kn ife ."
( B i rd , I I .
93-5)
Figure 15 Ainu coat; elm bark fabric
w ith indigo -dyed a p p lique and cotton
stitching
And so, from B i rd's a ccou nt of p e rhaps the e a r l i est edge of this rese a rc h pape r's
window into vernacu l a r texti les in J a p a n , we look, n ext, to see the beg i n n i n g of the
thesis' m ateria l focus: a culture of weavin g ; the introd u ction of cotton to J a p a n ; the
cu ltivation a n d p rod u ction of cotton , a n d the swift and last i n g c h a n ges that m ate ria l
brou ght to the l ives of eve n the " lowest" of J a pa nese society d u ri n g the Eda pe riod a n d
beyond.
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
Cotton and Tabane in J a p a n
O n ce the com moners i n J a p a n c a m e to l e a r n of th e wa rmth and oth er qu a l ities
of cotton it was i n ev ita ble that they wou ld seek any means to exchange it for th e h e m p
a n d oth e r bast cloth i n g they h a d a lways worn. Lower- i n come people, formerly clothed
i n asa (tra ns lated a s cloth of hemp or ra m ie), ba rk, pa per, and assorted other su bstances,
none of wh i ch was very satisfactory as m aterial for garments, being n e ither warm,
comfortable, n or rea d i ly was hable, were eager for cotton . As the m a rket economy
developed d u r i n g th e Eda pe riod a n d as the d e m a n d for cotton i n c reased, the da imyo
further e n couraged th e p roduction of thread a n d cloth. Howeve r, even i n th e late Eda
a n d ea rly M eiji periods, poore r fa rmers cou l d not afford to use the cotton they
the mse lves p roduced -- even as restrictions, i m posed by the shogun ate, for their
a l l owa n ce to wea r it, in certain colors re lative to their soci a l status -- were eased. I n stead
it was sold to d e a l e rs and sh ipped to the g reat com m e rcial cente rs of Osaka and Eda
(Tokyo). U rban dem a n d for the cotton was h i g h ; "with the exception of rice, cotton a n d
cotton th read beca m e the most i m porta nt com m e rc i a l goods i n J a pa n , more i m portant
than rapeseed, d ried s a rd i nes, sake, l u mber, or i nd i go . " xv ( H a n l ey, 95) Th e fa rm e rs had
to m a ke do with used cotton cloth i n g that was recycled back to them from the cities,
and on l eftove r, poor q u a l ity thread which they spun a n d wove i n wi nte r when there was
no oth e r work to be done on the fa rm.
Arou nd the turn of th e 1 91h centu ry, cotton cloth beca m e more u n ive rsa l ly
ava i l a b l e i n J ap a n 's cotton grow i n g south ern a n d western regions and i n those regions
a l most eve ry v i l l a g e had a dyeshop or " kon 'ya " . " Most commoners wore either i n d i go-
An Aesth eti c of Resou rcefu l n ess
M A LS Thesis
M. Dol den Ve a l e
dyed or yel low . . . d u r i n g the late Eda the general ava i labi l ity of cotton p romoted the
d evelopment of " sh im a " (striped), " ts utsugaki" or sta rch resi st and " katazome" or
ste n c i l dye i n g . Cotton dyed in these tech n i q ues were used for clot h i n g , bedd i n g a n d
wed d i n g g ifts ." (Wi l l i a m s a n d Yosh ida, 20)
Ai: I n d i go
" As emble matic of fol k l ife as J a pa n ' s b l ue a n d
white cotton fabrics a re, cotton is not nat ive t o J a pan a n d a
rel ative n ewcome r to the J a p a n ese cu ltu ra l l a n dscape . . . .
Cotton was a boon to the J a p a n ese. U n l ike bast fiber which
can be w i ry a n d u n forg iving, cotton was p l iab le, soft,
comfortable to wear, a n d it eage rly d ra n k in the dye."
(Szczepa n e k i n D u rston, 34) When cotton did become
widely ava i l a b l e , d u r i n g the l ate Eda pe riod, i n d i g o
Figu re 1 6 1 n digo dye r ; an
im po rtant position in E do -e ra
p roduction rose too, bri n g i n g wea lth to the g rowi n g a reas
Japan
of Toku s h i m a , (Awa) on S h i koku I s l a n d , a n d oth e r, southweste rn g row i n g areas. So
p recious was i n d i go to Eda pe riod com m e rce, J en ny B a lfou r-P a u l rel ates, in h e r book
In digo, t h at in the e i g hteenth century, J a pa nese fa rm e rs who were accused of g iv i n g
away "the secrets o f p rod uction t o outs iders were apparently beheaded."xvi (Ba lfourP a u l , 106) I n the m id-19th centu ry, the fas h ion -conscious n ew, urban m i d d l e class in the
An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l ness
M. Dol den Ve a l e
M A LS Thesis
cities w i l d l y e m braced i nd i go. By the beg i n n i n g of the 201h ce ntu ry, 40,000 acres of
i n d i go were u nd e r p roduction i n the Tokush i m a a rea a lone.
A woodblock print by Toyoku n i from the 1 820's (Fi g u re 12) shows crowds a rou n d
the Ryogoku B ridge i n E d o g athered for a fireworks d ispl ay. M a ny a re wea ring kimono,
of i n d igo-dyed, kasuri (crisscross patterned) woven c loth . When edicts were iss ued by
the shog u n ate to restri ct the wearing of the more ostentatious " fi n e clothes " ;
e m b roidered a n d patterned, s u m ptuous s i l ks a n d brocad es b y t h at g rowing m i d d l e
class, there w a s a n i nte resting sh ift t o more restra i n e d fa b rics. Th is n e w fas h ion was
perhaps out of n ecess ity or lawfu l ness, but accord i n g to An n a J a ckson : "The use of such
" lowly " fa brics a n d patterns [as kasuri, for exa m p l e ] did not s i g n ify the h u m b l e
com p l i a nce o f the m e rchant cl asses, however. Th e gorgeous ostentation d e n i e d t h e m
w a s consciously rejected in favor o f a n ew fash ion aesthetic known as iki, wh ich c a n
rou g h ly translated as c h i c . O utwa rd fla m boya nce w a s rep l a ced b y su btle e l e g a n ce , a n d
in [woodblock] p r i nts o f t h e pe riod e l egant a n d fas h ionable women a re often depicted
wea ring i n d igo-dyed kimono. " (J a ckson, 58)
Eventu a l ly, this i n d igo-dyed cloth, worn a n d then cast off by the m e rcha nt and
a rtisan classes, sold as used cloth i n g and materi a l , wou l d fi nd its way i nto the b u n d les of
used cloth i n g and rags, the tabane, of rag m erch a nts. Those m e rcha nts wou l d send th e i r
wa res u p the coast o f the I n l a n d Sea, i n t r a d e for the goods n e e d e d a n d ava i l a b l e from
the re mote coasts - fish fertiliz e r a n d oil from Hokka ido, a n d " tax rice " from the rich,
rice-prod u ci n g a reas serviced by the kitam a esen.
An Aesthetic of Resourcefu l n ess
M. Dol den Ve a l e
MALS Thesis
Kitam aesen
" Th e re a re seve ra l terms used to describe the Edo-era coa sta l trad e rs, the most
generic term b e i n g
beza isen. This w a s the
term that seamen and
s h i p-owners te nded to
use. The l itera l ori g i n s
o f th e n a m e a re v a g u e
but p robably refer to
the vessel type -sen, as
Figu re 1 7 Kitamaese n; A Floating Ma rke tplace
a word e n d i n g, m e a ns " s h ip" - a n d someti m es the word is rom a n i sed as b enzaisen.
More specific term s for the coasta l traders i nclude kitamaesen - best tra n s lated as
" northern coasta l trader" - the type that s a i l e d a long th e Sea of J a p a n coast to
H okkaido. From the north the most com mon ca rgo was h e rri n g, s a l mon a n d kelp i n
trade for rice, sa lt, cotton , cloth a n d s ake from the m a i n l a n d . It has b e e n s a i d that t h e
term kitam a esen w a s used b y Pacific coast s a i lors a n d w a s a derogatory reference t o the
ships of the Japan Sea. Th is Japan Sea coast is more rural than oth e r pa rts of the
cou ntry . " xvii ( B e n n ett, 136) Perha ps, to the h a rdy P a cific coast sai l ors, the kitam aesen,
. .
An Aesth etic of Resou rcefu l n ess
M. Dol den Vea l e
MALS Thesis
" rea l ly j ust floati n g ma rkets"; (Wi l l i a ms and Yosh ida, 1 4) wooden vessels with no keel
and p ropel led by a s i n g l e s a i l , seemed l ess worthy of a ny sai lor's respect th a n ships that
sai l ed th e open seas.
With the tremen dous g rowth in pop u l ation at that time, the l ate Edo bakufu
e n cou raged expansion and development of
the fa rm i n g a n d i n d ustries that we re native to
loca l daimyo dom a i n s . A vastly i m p roved
means of transportation a n d d istri bution was
req u i red to move goods from p l ace to p l ace,
and the difficu lt roads and freq uent flood i n g
of rive rs - a n d subsequent was h i n g-away of
bridges - d i ctated sea routes be developed
. :.� I
a long the coasts of the na rrow a n d long
Figure 1 8 K itamaesen sh i p ping ro utes along
the North Coast
J a pa nese a rchipel a go. S h i p p i n g routes were
esta blished a long both western and eastern coasts as part of the E do pe riod reforms;
the western route, the Kita ma esen, p rovided the means to move goods, i n c l u d i n g
cotton, u p a n d north from t h e south ern cities (th e route ori g i n ated in S a k a i , j ust south of
Osaka), and i m porta ntly, for the sh ips to return with the fish mea l a n d oil that served as
fert i l ize r critical to the g rowing needs of the southern a g ricu lt u ra l a reas. Re lative to ou r
specific focus - sakiori - as said, cotton was of existential i mportance. But the
An Aesth etic of Resou rceful ness
M. Dol den Ve ale
MALS Thesis
kita m a esen was th e ve hicle for i ntrod u c i n g and tra nsporting used cotton to the remote
north ern regions.
It is specu l ated that the a i-dyed, blue cotton clothes worn by the sai lors a board
the sh ips m ay have been the northern commoners' first i ntrod uction to the soft, p l iable,
was h a b l e a n d wa rm cloth. It is a l so thought that the v i l l a g e rs of the weste rn coast ports
may h ave sold their bast wove n cloth i n g or cloth i n excha n g e for used cotton in the form
of rags or for n ew, l esser q u a l ity cotton goods. And, so moneta ry va l u e was a lso
i n troduced. We saw from Isabella B i rd 's accou nt of the Ainu women weave rs that they,
at l east i n 1878, had some exp e ri e n ce i n sel l i n g the textiles they wove . Th e last north ern
stop the s h i ps of the kitam a esen made was i n Hokkaido, before t u rn i n g back south on
the retu rn to Osaka a n d the u rban ma rkets . They m ay have bought the b a rk cloth made
by th e Ainu there, and sol d it, a long their retu rn route to Osaka.
IV. O bjects to Artifacts
Weaving Tech n i q ues a n d M ateri a l s
W e h a v e se e n from I sabel la B i rd's descri ption o f t h e A i n u weaving e l m bark
fibers into c loth , that what is g e n e ra l l y a ccepted as h istorica l fact, is the use of the
" iza ribata " , or backstrap loom as the e a rl i est means of weavi n g cloth . Other than the
Ainu peop l e of Hokka ido's use of e l m , most of the J ap a n ese m a i n la nd's bast cloth was
fash ioned of oth e r fi bers, fou nd in even ve ry ea rly exa m p l e s - " irakus a " , a n ative n ettle,
tree basts s u ch a s " shina " , l i n d e n , a n d basts from v i n es a n d s h ru bs such a s " fuji ",
wiste ria a n d " kozo" or paper mu lberry. (Wi l l i a m s a n d Yos h i d a , 20-1) The jibata loom , or
" loom that s its on th e g rou n d , " was introd uced to J a pan a rou nd the 5th centu ry, a
dati ng, a g a i n, g e n e ra l ly a ccepted by h i storia ns, a n d thou ght to have been brou ght in by
C h i n ese or Korea n special ist weave rs (a n d , may have com e by way of Oki n awa). Arou n d
the same time, accord i n g t o D a i W i l l ia m s , w a s the a l most s i m u ltan eous i ntroduction of
the " takabata " or h i g h loom with a ri g i d fra m e . Th e reason for these adva nces was two­
fol d : th e obvious d ifficu lty a n d l i m itations of the backstrap loom's p roduction , and the
fact that cloth from this ea rly time was genera l ly p roduced as tribute. (Ag a i n , h istori a ns
look to the e a rl ie r, fine tribute cloth com i n g from the Ryukyu i s l a n ds, what is now
Okin awa, i n a northern trajectory of more sop h i sticated weavi n g tech n iq u es i nto Japan's
m a i n l a n d . ) The va l u ation of the cloth, as a tax essenti a l ly, then dem a n ded furth e r
sta n d a rd ization of s i z e a n d a n i n crease a n d consiste n cy o f q u a l ity.
With the jibata, it was possible to rol l the
finished sections; it was th e refore possi ble to
p rod u ce cloth of 1 5 to 18 m eters in l e n gth.
Access to these sophist icated looms, a n d th e
ski l l needed to work on them, generally,
F igure 1 9 I l lustration; J ibata loom
re m a i ne d l i m ited to only " specia l ist" weavers
u n t i l , accord i n g to An n a J a c kson of the V&A, the ea rly 191h centu ry, when the looms were
in widespread use i n " advanced cotton weaving a reas" . (J ackson , 71) It is a lso im porta nt
to u n d e rsta n d th at, even with the basic n atu re of the backstrap loom a n d ea rly floor
looms, a n d s i m p l e p l a in -weave tec h n iques " g reat s ki l l a n d patience were re q u i re d to
ach ieve a b a l a nce of wa rp a n d weft, a n d to m a i ntain the overa l l te nsion a n d subsequent
density of wove n fabric." The ba ckstrap loom was a l so u n iquely su ited to the weavi ng of
s akiori, or perhaps conversely, the thick a n d u n even weft of cotton rag stri ps dema nded
the heavy beati n g that was most easi ly a ccom p l ished by the physical ly-de m a n d i n g ,
backstrap loom p rocess, which w a s more forgivi n g of i rreg u l a rity i n weft materia l .
H e m p , wh ich b y the m i d-171h century was cult ivated o n sm all fa mily p lots of many
com moners, was widely used for weavi n g . As l ate as the 1940's it was sti l l used i n rural
clothing, and is often seen as the wa rp i n s a kiori. Its cultivation effectively ended at the
con cl usion of World War I I .
P l a i n weave
P l a i n weave (a lso ca l l e d ta bby weave or l i n e n weave) is the
most basic of three fu nda m e ntal types of texti l e weaves. It is
strong and h a rdwea r i n g , and with some few exceptions is the
Figure 20 illustration ;
p lain weave
tec h n i q u e t h at is a ssoci ated with shifu and sakiori. I n p l a i n weave,
the wa rp a n d weft a re a l i g ned so they form a s i m p l e crisscross
patte rn. Each weft th read crosses the warp t h reads by goi n g ove r one, th en u n d e r the
n ext, a n d so on . The n ext weft thread goes under the warp t h reads that its n e i g h bor
went over, a n d vice ve rsa .
R u ra l weavi n g on the jibata loom wou l d h ave been m a i n ly i n pla i n weave a n d
u s e d for m a k i n g cloth for work c loth i n g , often u s i n g the very heavy and th ick wefts of,
perhaps recycled, kozo (paper mu lberry) c loth that was favored for h a rd use.
F igure 2 1 Exa m p le ; plain weav ing
ROCK· SCISSORS · PAPER
- shif11 -
Figure 22 Poster illustrating three com ponents of the sh i fu process; recycled pa pe r, cutting
and breaking the pa per fiber
Sh ifu
I n shifu the weft is paper thread or yarn that h a s been spun, laboriously, from
washi or from various recycled pa per, i n c l u d i n g washi, that is cut i nto strips, the fibers
b roken down by pou n d i n g , or rol l i ng , enough to be spun i nto thread or fin e yarn. I n later
ye a rs the warp wou ld be cotton, but hemp was very often the thread of choice, as it was
easier t h a n oth e r fiber basts, and stronger, to use as the warp. No one wa nts to h ave to
repa i r a broken warp.
There a re rea l ly two types of shifu; the more util itarian cloth i n g that i n corporates
recycled paper, g e n e r a l l y as weft, a n d was made in response to having paper as a n
ava i l a b l e resou rce (in J a pan q u ite p l entifu l from the 1 Jlh cent u ry). An i n d i go-dyed, shifu
ki mono such as the one be low (Fi g u re 23) is a n exa m p l e, thoug h fewe r exa m p les of
dyed shifu work cloth i n g a re seen th a n those with natural colors from warp and weft:
F igu r e 2 3 I nd igo-dyed s h i fu ( pa p e r w eft} kosode or k imo no
The second " type" of shifu i n corporates fine wash i paper, or h a n d m a d e paper of
various, fi n e ly made types. This practice, which goes back to the 1 5th century i n J a p a n , is
sti l l i n p ra ctice in conte m pora ry fiber a rts, in J a pa n and i n various forms in oth e r
cou ntries, as we l l . "Shifu's past i n d u stry, l i ke that of washi, no l o n g e r exists as it once
did when master craftspeople were m a inta i n ed for every stag e of the paper
thread m a ki n g p rocess for Shiraishi shifu. " (Byrd, 45) B ut, as Susan Byrd poi nts out,
conte m pora ry ma kers who a re ca rry i n g on its trad ition sti l l fol low the attention to
fi n e n ess a n d d eta i l of the past.
"Shifu shou ld be woven with the
t h read's cha racte r in mind, a tig htly
twi sted or rol l e d paper thread th at
expands s l ightly when washed. U s i n g
a cou nter-bala nced floor loom (hata)
e na b les a closer beat due to th e
threads spre a d . The loom is ofte n
threaded for a n a rrow width of cloth ,
F igu re 24 1 9th c . woodb lock print; work a t
the loom
set at forty e ig h t to s ixty-four ends per i n ch (epi) or wa rp th reads per i n ch . A
g e nt l e beat is im portant because of the thread's nature; however, it is d ifficu lt to
do it con siste ntly wel l . M u ch practice a n d a sense for the a p p ropriate beat w i l l
ach ieve the weaver's p referred fee l for t h e shifu." (Byrd, 88.)
S a ki o ri
I n Aomori the rags were cut with scissors a n d then torn i nto strips a bout 3mms. wide.
The D i rector of the Aomori Ke i koka n M u seum noted th at this preparation of the weft
" g iven the extre m e value of cotton cloth itse lf, the act of tea r i n g it up m u st have ta ken
on sacred aspects . " (Yos h i d a and Wi l l i a ms, 25.)
Sakiori was wove n from cotton rags or scraps that came from the large b u n d les,
or tabane, that the rag m e rcha nts sent a long the s h i p p i n g routes of kita m a esen from
Osaka or S a ka i to the south. The c loth i n g fas h ioned from the s akiori cloth, in its earliest
a n d orig i n a l forms, was meant to be heavy a n d durable essent i a l l y for workwe a r for both m e n and wom e n . In e a rly
sa kiori t h e warp was hemp or oth e r bast fi ber, the weft was the
torn or cut rag - som etimes rea l ly only bundled th reads; th e
color was primari ly dark b l u e as th is was what reflected what
was most ava i lable. Later, a s cotton thread became more
widely used, the wh ite t h read was used for stitch i n g and with i n
the weft a s a more decorative o r hade (fa n cy) effect.
F igure 25 Sodenashi: sa kiori work
vest, 1 9 50
Accord i n g to Da i Wi l l iams:
"Weaving sakiori [on a j i bata loom] req u i red spec i a l tech n i q ues a s the
weft was very th ick. U n l i ke conte m pora n eous bast fiber or cotton
weavi n g , m a k i n g sa kiori requi red the use of a sepa rate batte n a n d
s h uttle. The batten w a s longer a n d h eavier i n ord e r t o beat th e thick
weft down we l l ; the sh uttle was a simple stick a rou n d which the rag
was wou n d . The thickness of the weft com b i ne d with the friction set
up between the cotton weft and bast wa rp re q u i red considera ble
power a n d the p recise ti m i n g i n the batten stroke. O n the oth er hand,
given th� th ickness of th e weft, the weavi n g went q u ickly." (Yoshida a n d
W i l l i a ms, 27.)
Figure 2 6 Deta il :
S a k io r i hem p war p ,
co tton weft
As with shifu, described a bove, there occurred a
refi nement to s akiori -- from the ori g i n a l, very he avy, sakiori a s
cotton beca m e more ava i l a b l e , a s rags fash ioned from o l d
clot h i n g , mostly kimono or kosode, a n d as more colors ( a n d
dyes) - - began t o be i n corporated i n to more decorative a n d l ess
uti litarian cloth i n g , such as obis.
Figure 27 Rice p lant ing
season prov ided an
o p po rtunity for young
women to wear the
20th c. vers ion of a
fancier ty pe of sa k io ri the o b i
B o ra
I n J a pa n , m e n ded and patched text i l es a re refe rred to a s boro, or rags. For some time,
the boro tradition was regarded with g reat shame s i n ce these util ita ri a n text i l es
p rovi ded a rem i n d e r of the rural poverty endemic i n J a pan's h istory. Sew i n g together
layers of repu rposed fa bric wou l d add wa rmth a n d d u ra b i l ity to a fi n i shed piece. A
ru n n i n g stitch ca l l e d "sas h i ko" was e m p l oyed a n d sas h i ko is a n im porta nt p resence i n
J a p a nese ru ral culture . " Pove rty i s the root of th e boro tradit ion of recyc l i ng i n J a p a n .
Text i les, p a rticu l a rly cottons, were va l u a b l e a n d not t o be wasted." (Sorgato, 1 3.) Used
cloth i n g and rags, many that were dyed with i n d i go, J a p a n 's ubiqu itous b l ue, we re
washed a n d stitch e d togeth e r with bast fiber th read (and later cotton) patched,
rei nforced to m a ke wearable coats (norag1) for fa rmers, fish e rm a n and forest work.
Recycled clot h i n g was a l so tra nsformed by d econstructing garments to create futon
bedcovers, h ouse hold items, ca rrying cloths a n d bags, d i a p e rs a n d fi n a l ly, potholders.
Figure 28 B oro fu t o n bedc over with s a sh i ko s t i tching 185
x
131 cm
V. Aesth etic Context
" I n con sidering the a p p a re nt qua l ities of p a rticu l a r objects, we n eed to recog n ize
how 2Q1h centu ry critics have sha ped our aesth etic values. The d i rectness we perceive in
'fo l k craft' objects appeals to u s looki ng, as we i n evitably do, th rou g h our late-201h
centu ry eyes. The objects h ave a s i m p l i city which received a rtistic op i n ion throu g hout
most of this centu ry has m a i nta i n e d is a h a l l m ark of good desig n . " A n n a J a ckson of the
V&A M useum wrote this i n 1 997, as a part of her thorou g h exa m i n ation of th e terms and
aesthetic a rg u m e nts, at the time that s u rrou nded the M useum's defi n ition of its
col lect ion of " cou ntry text i l e s " from J a p a n .
I n t h e e a r l y part o f t h e 201h centu ry, a school o f thou ght a n d p rese rvation was
p rom u l g ated by Ya n a g i Soetsu (1 889- 1 96 1 ), the fou n de r of the J a p a n ese Folk Craft
move m e nt. Ya n a g i 's inte ntion was to p reserve the traditio n a l crafts of J a p a n , a n d h i s
fervor w a s , i n pa rt, fu e l e d by t h e con cerns t h a t a rose d u ri n g the early decades of the 2Qlh
centu ry in which the rise of in dustri a l ization was thought, by m a ny wit h i n J a p a nese
soci ety, to be consi dered a th reat; that Japan wou l d lose its identity as a n ation . I t was
Ya n a g i who coi n e d the te_rm, " mingei"; an abbreviated word d e rived from " m inshu"
(com mon p eople) a n d " kogei" (craft) a n d was tra n s l ated, del iberately as " fol k craft " , not,
as " fo l k a rt " . As J a ckson exp l a ins, in ord e r to q u a l ify as " mingei" objects needed to be,
a bove a l l , fu n ction a l , " beauty born of use " , and had to be: made by hand, a nonymously,
using natural m ate ria ls, traditio n a l methods a n d desig ns, a n d s i m p l e forms, one of m a ny
s i m i l a r pieces, and i n expensive. Jackson a rg ue d t h at Ya n a g i 's defi n ition was too
- .
restrict ive, a n d l i m it i n g , of the large pool of " co u ntry" objects - n ot o n l y textiles -
- -
but m a ny oth e r fo rms of trad iti o n a l J a p a n ese craft. These defin iti o n a l a rg u m ents
�
a re o l d, sometimes sti l l re leva nt, a n d at times, sti l l e m otio n a l , top i cs of l i n g u i stics
a n d of a rt vs. craft categorizati o n , a esthetic p h i losophy a n d cu rator i a l concern.
�
L - -·-
......
An n a J a cks o n 's solution, with i n h e r text, was to acknowledge, "Th ey [th e objects
�
......:-
-
....-
that fit with i n Ya n a g i 's co l l ection crite ria] do seem to s h a re a certain d i rectness.
. . . They d o not have th e oste ntation of m u ch of the a rt created fo r the castles of
!
'
... - -
the m i l it a ry e l ite. N o r d o they s h a re the p re-occu pation with ever-ch a n g i ng
-
fas h i o n that is the h a l l ma r k of the " fl oati ng worl d " of the c ity. Th e aesthetic fo und
>-"'--
i n s o-ca l l ed fo l k objects is also fa r removed fro m that which i nfo rmed th e
�
sophisticated p ie ces of te chnical virtuosity produced i n the M eiji pe riod . "
.
(J a ckson, 2 1 ) And s h e was forcefu l i n h e r a rg u ment that the objects m u st be
l ooked at i n th e broader co ntext - not o n ly t h ro u g h Ya n a g i 's viewpoint i n the
·....
e a r ly decades of the 20th ce ntu ry. " M e a n i n g " , as q u oted earli er, " i s n eve r fixed; it
is constantly sh ifti n g . "
-
My fi rst intro d u ction to the " fo l k " texti l es from J ap a n came i n the fo rm of a
•
g ift. My siste r bro u g h t me a sakiori obi from a trip she m a d e to J a p a n i n th e late
1 970's. At that t i m e , I bare ly knew what a n " obi" was, a n d I ce rta i n ly d i d n 't know
I
...
a nyth i n g a bout sakiori o r its p rovena nce. What I d i d know that it was, to m e , a
..
�
bea utifu l object. It was subtle, a n d bea utifu l ly wove n , I th ought. Th e weave was so tight,
the co l o rs a n d stri p i n g subdued but stri k i n g . The form of it, n a rrow a n d so
F igure 29 Sak ior i ob i ;
m id-20th
c.
m y " g i ft " ob
l o n g , fi n i shed at o n e e n d with some s i lver threads that seemed to say, " Th is is specia l . "
What I now know i s t h at yes, th is i s i n deed a sakiori obi. I t was q u ite probably m ade
sometime a ro u n d the e a rly o r m i d-20th centu ry, and it was, perha ps, woven by a you ng
woman who was, i n fact, to we a r it as a sort of fas h i o n statement, a n d to sh owcase h e r
s ki l l s as a weaver. It m ig h t h a v e b e e n woven by a tra i ned weaver t o se l l to s o m e o n e else.
It i s n ot typ ical of the s akiori that I have focused o n in this research in that it i s not
" ut i l itari a n " . It appears to h ave been woven fro m recycl ed cotton, a n d perhaps some
s i l k. Acco rding to D a i W i l l ia m s, sakiori obis became pop u l a r after WWI and na rrow
"ya m a ob i" or " m ountain obi " a re fo u nd a l l over J a p a n . Th is was not an item of clot h i n g
woven o u t o f necessity. Perh aps my a p p reciation of it has i n creased with this added
knowledge, but there h a s to be, I bel ieve, a n enthusi astic aesthetic acknowledgement
that there are factors u n ique to its form, design a n d material that a re i ntrin sica l ly
appea l i n g . What I m e a n by aesth etic co ntext reflects these ideas. The cha nge t h is
person a l study has brought to me, i n g a i n i n g a depth of knowl edge about these "cloth
objects , " is what I t h i n k of as a more i nformed, " eye " . And, furthe r, in a l l the time I h ave
spent resea rch i n g , l oo k i n g , weavi ng, h a n d l i n g the fabric a n d m ate rials s i n ce first be i n g
g iven t h i s o bi, a deeper r a n g e a n d c h a n g e i n aesthetics h as b e e n unfo l d i n g .
T h e relative ly recent i nterest in boro textiles i l l u strates this p h e n o m e n o n .
Descri b i n g the boro co l l ected i n the 1 960's b y Chuza b u ro Ta n a ka, Yukiko K o i d e a n d
Kyo ichi Tsuzuki m a ke a 2 1 st ce ntu ry assertio n :
" I f exact i n g l y reproduced a n d labeled with French or Ita l i a n designer tags, these
" n ot-so-g l a d ra g s " wo u l d u n d o u btedly fetch h i g h -e n d p ri ces, so perfectly a rtless
is their deta i l i n g . Not that they a re in any way " p recious" l i ke mingei " fo l k craft"
or contempora ry aute u r patchwork q u i lts; no these a re products, p u re a n d
simple, o f a sh iveri n g desire t o th ickly ove rl ay whatever was on h a n d fo r he avy­
d uty warmt h .
J u st a s co n s u m m ate " outsider a rt " shocked conte m p o ra ry a rt p rofess iona ls, the
bea uty and sheer com positi o n a l s k i l l of these boro c reati o n s m a de by
i mpoverished cou ntry fo l k pose fu nda menta l questions to fas h i o n and design
ci rcles everywh ere. " (Koide and Tsuzuki,
4)
Figure 30 Donja; boro s lee ping robe
It is a rg u a b l e now th at, i n the ea rly 2 1 •1 centu ry, o u r co l l ective view is shifti n g with
a g l ob a l perspective, especia l ly when tied to n otions of in creasi n g ly l i m ited resou rces,
on a g l o bal scale, and a focus on susta i na b i l ity. There a re lesso ns to be learned.
Schol a rs, s u ch as Susan H a n ley in h e r book, " Everyday Things i n Pre- M od e rn Japan" and
d es i g n e rs a n d writers such as Azby B rown , in h is book "J ust Enough: Lessons i n Living
G reen from Traditi o n a l J a p a n (2009) a re active ly res h a p i n g h ow some of the Eda-era
issues of poverty, a usterity a n d social stratifi cation can be a n a lyzed, and criticized, from
Western perspectives in t h e i r writ i n g .
" T h e To kugawa sol utions to l i m ited resou rces enabled the J apanese t o reach a
h ig h l evel of civi l ization u s i n g a m i n i m u m of reso urces, a n d wh erever possible,
n atu ral, renewa b l e materials. These solutions led to a society i n which beauty and
l uxury were fou n d i n good desi g n rather than a vast n u m ber of objects o n
d i sp l ay. T h e best, rath e r t h a n a b u n d a n ce, w a s h i g h l i g hted . Eve n t h e rich fo l l owed
these principles and kept the l a rge q u a ntities they owned in n u m e rous
sto reh ouses, bringing out o n l y a few obj ects at a time to be a ppreciated. The
m ate rial cu ltu re of the To kugawa period can trace its roots to m ed i eva l times, if
not e a rl ier. But what s h o u l d be n oted is that the d i re ction the materi a l culture
took was not the o rn ate ness of th e Toshogu shri nes or the Ka n o school of
p a i nting, but the s i m p l i city of the shoin style a n d i n k d rawi n g s . This is not to
a rg ue that th e rulers a n d the wea lth iest of m e rc h a nts were not g u i lty of waste,
but the g e n e ra l princi p les of using less e n e rgy, fewer resources, a n d reus i n g a n d
recyc l i n g l et many m o re p e o p l e p a rtici pate i n a h i g h e r sta ndard of l iv i n g a n d
cultu re than if the tre n d had b e e n toward the wastefu l u s e o f sca rce resou rces.
B y d efi n i n g l uxury i n terms of au ste rity and sparseness, many m o re people were
a b l e to h ave a h ig h level of p hysical wel l-be i n g . " ( H a n l ey, 76)
The conj u n ction of these g l o b a l , soci a l , eco n o m i c a n d e nvironmental issues n ow:
a turn i n g away from the l ate 201h centu ry's cu ltu re of a b u n d a n ce, a recogn ition of fi n ite
resou rces, an em brace of recycl i n g , a n ow-h istorical (modern ist) reg ard for sparsen ess
and s i m p l i city, and, the p e rh a ps eve r-present quest for " a uthenticity " ; these a re a l l , it
wo u l d see m , factors of aesthetic co ntext from o u r 2 1 '1 centu ry eyes.
VI. Conclusion
M y rese a rc h has s h own, I b e l i eve, that i n the Edo a n d M e ij i periods the
eco n o m i c, and, co rresp o n d i n g ly soci a l , s i g n ificance of texti les became i n creasingly
i m p o rtant to J a pa n , p a rti cula rly to its rural com m u n ities. I h ave concluded t h at th e
widespread i ntrod uction of cotto n, p a rticu la rly, was crucial i n its i m pa ct on the qua l ity of
l ife, and comfo rt of the commoners of J a p a n . The p a rticu l a r texti l es th at I have focused
upon, sakiori and boro, b e a r witn ess, a s a rtifa cts, to th e p ro cess of the "trickle down " of
cotto n's inte rj ection into rura l co m m u n ities. Th e weaving p rocess of shifu, i s refl ective, in
p a rticu l a r of th e J a panese reverence fo r u s i n g m ate r i a l s at h a n d, and in the exq u isite
attention to n atu ra l m ateri a l s be i n g crafted into fine ly-m ade utilita rian o bj e cts.
I d i d n ot real ize, u n t i l I took on this stu dy of vernacu l a r text i les, that it wou l d be
poss i b l e to trace the h istory a n d i m p a ct of these l a rgely an onymous cl oth o bjects or
tech n i ques as they m ade their way th ro ugh a particu l a r p l ace, time and culture. (An d I
was s u rprised a n d i n s p i red by the depth of E n g l is h - l a n g u age so urces that I could
explore; i n itial ly, I was ve ry co ncerned by my l a ck of J ap a n ese l a n g u age ski l ls.)
What strikes me, n ow at the e n d of this exercise, a re t h ree areas of outsta n d i n g
i n te rest, a n d perhaps furth e r specu latio n :
1 . "The appeara n ce o f pove rty" ( Byrd)
M ost of the texts that descri be sakiori a n d boro describe their p rove nance as a
res u l t of the d i re p overty a n d h a rs h ci rcumstance experien ced by the common e rs of the
Edo era. I don't d ispute t h at from our eyes and our Western experience it is n ot
i n correct to d escribe, as d i d the museum di recto r in S a n Fra ncisco, ea rly, uti l itarian
sakiori as defi n i n g " an aesth etic of poverty. " B ut what is, I be l i eve, i m portant to my
furth e r research, is to be open to a more n u a nced view: that out of those circumsta n ces,
and th e h an ds a n d l ooms and needles of the m a ke rs of sh ifu, boro and s akiori came
some extraord i n a ry objects that we re clea rly fas h i o ned with care, deliberate design and
extrao rd i n a ry effort.
At the same time Isabella Byrd described d i rt, ra gged cloth i n g , hyg i e n e and weather
v u l n e ra b i l ity, she a l so rem a rked on the industriousness, e n e rgy, work eth i c and fam i ly
co h es iven ess of those ru ral J a p a n ese people living " i n d i re pove rty " . The isolation the
shogu nate structu re i m p osed o n th e entire cou ntry exa ggerated what I th i n k of the
" is l a n d m e ntal ity" of the nation of J a p a n . They were isol ated, but they were l iving i n
rel ative peace a n d secu rity. They h a d t o rely s i m p l y o n the resou rces they had on their
l a n ds . It created, I wo u l d argue, a cu ltu re that we p resently observe as creative ly
resou rcefu l a n d su sta i n a b l e .
2 . "A wo rld cross-s n a rled " (U l rich)
The ope n i n g of J a p a n to world trade in the mid-1 9th ce ntu ry brought along with
it a wo rldly cu ltu re of val uation, e co n o m i cs, wea lth (a nd pove rty), g reed a n d abunda nce.
Fol l ow i n g the 1 4th centu ry-era kasu ri (ikat) tech n ique of we aving from the Ryu kyu islands
(O ki n awa, n ow) i s a k i n to the term " Fo l l ow th e money. " The p racticed weavers of the
Ryukyus paid taxes to shoguns in southern Japan i n the fo rm of fi n e kasuri cloth. It
became popu l a r, a n d va l u ed, on the J a pa n ese m a i n l a n d . Weave rs were e n l isted, even
fo rce d, to move themse lves, and then to teach the kasuri tech n i ques of weaving, to
m a i n l a n d e rs - a n d in a p rocess that depen ded on access to cottons, dyes, and
econ o m i c deve lopment o n the m a i n island, fou r centuries l ater ( ! ) we see the fa ncy
lad ies of the " floati n g worl d " of Edo-era p l easure q u a rters swathed in bl ack, b l u e and
red kasuri kim ono.
Figure 31 Kas u r i kimono, 19th c. V&A
Museum Co l lection
3. And final ly:
"Nobody really thinks wh o does not abstract from that wh ich is given, wh o does
not relate th e facts to the fa ctors wh ich have made them, who does not in his
mind undo the fa cts. Abstractness is the very life of thought, the token of its
auth enticity. " H e rbe rt M a rcuse
Perhaps a nt ithetica l l y to the whole e nterprise of this rese a rc h paper, p e rhaps
not, I a m , sti l l , inte rested in a l lowi n g my m i n d "to u n d o the facts " . I say that re l ative to
the a esth etic qu a l ities of these texti les; what An n a J a ckson descri bes or concedes as
" d i re ctness " . There is an a bstract q u a lity to sh ifu, sakiori and boro objects. They a re not
fi g u r a l . They are not, re al ly, what most viewers wo u l d describe a s " p retty. " Th e i r
richness, sti l l , t o m e l i es at least t o some extent i n the myste ries of what t h e y a re
com posed of, where those rags and fi bers came from a n d how their cu rrent i n ca rnation
revea l s some u n known h istory. The a bstra ctio n h e re, thou g h , i s that o n e doesn 't
n e cessarily have to know a n y of this to experience th e p leasure of their bei n g . Perhaps
what they reveal - without b e i n g u n rave led physically o r i nte l l ectu a l ly - is what I have
l a be l e d "An Aesthetic of Resou rcefu l n ess " ; a d e l i g ht in their sp i rit.
F igure 32 S a k i o r i o b i, 1 9th c. V&A Museum Collection
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