ABSTRACT
The tradition of Boro clothing dates back to the Edo period when cotton was a very precious commodity in northern Japanese provinces: the climate was too cold to grow cotton plants. Worn-out indigo cotton clothes from the prosperous south were shipped up to the north-east of Japan, where working people developed techniques for patching, sewing, weaving and repairing. When cotton resources were scarce the Japanese working classes invented techniques to make their valuable clothes last for decades, if not centuries. Ironically, original 19th-century Boro textiles are fetching thousands of pounds as there are many collectors wanting to own these often beautiful garments that hold onto decades of family history. It is interesting that there are hundreds of knitting circles in the UK and that some of them will only use wool from second-hand jumpers. They unravel the wool just as Japanese people did centuries before: a great example of the circular economy, and all very familiar.
