Boro Textiles
Japan's mended and patched textiles are referred to as boro, or ragged, both in Japan and abroad.
Boro textiles are usually sewn from nineteenth and early twentieth century rags and patches of indigo dyed cotton. The diversity of patches on any given piece is a veritable encyclopedia of hand loomed cotton indigo from old Japan. In most cases, the beautiful arrangement of patches and mending stitches is borne of necessity and happenstance, and was not planned by the maker.
Imagine that boro textiles were stitched in the shadows of farmhouses, often at night by the light of one dim andon, on the laps of farm women. This unselfconscious creative process has yielded hand-made articles of soulful beauty, each of which calls upon to be recognized and admired as more than the utilitarian cloth they were intended to be.
A Beautifully Old Two Panel Patched and Tattered Hemp Kaya: Traditional Mosquito Netting
late nineteenth, early twentieth century80" x 29", 203.5 ... (more)
A Thickly Layered, Blanket Weight Cloth: Intact Fragments of Tailored Clothing
early to mid twentieth century51" x 26 1/2", 129.5 cm x 6... (more)
A Boro Hemp Tsunobukuro: Low Contrast Tonal Cotton Patches
late nineteenth century33 1/2" x 11 3/4", 85 cm x 32.5 cm... (more)
A Beautifully Mended Tsunobukuro: Horn Bag
early to mid twentieth century49" x 15 1/2", 80 cm x 37 c... (more)
A Two Panel Patched Futon Cover Fragment: Layers and Piles of Patches
early twentieth century62" x 25 1/2", 157.5 cm x 65 cm Wh... (more)
A Patched and Pieced Length of Plaid Cotton: Beautiful Hand Spun Yarns
late nineteenth century60" x 13 1/4", 152.5 cm x 33.5 cm ... (more)
A Length of Patched Cotton: Small Scale Plaid Base Cloth
late nineteenth, early twentieth century52" x 13 1/2", 13... (more)
A Patched Length of Blue on Blue Dyed Cotton: Checks
early twentieth century43" x 13", 109 cm x 33 cm This is ... (more)
A Large, Square Kotatsugake: Hearth Cover of Recycled Cotton Kimono
early to mid twentieth century61" x 62", 155 cm x 157.5 c... (more)