It is true that Sashiko is a part of Mending. Also, it is true that Mending is a part of Sashiko. However, when a discussion is about whether Sashiko is a Japanese form of ”Visible Mending”, the person needs to learn more about Sashiko & Boro to avoid “Cultural Ignorance”.
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The Japanese stitched out of necessity in a primitive form of Sashiko. Therefore, the Sashiko is strongly associated with mending. They tried to make the mending as “invisible” as possible because the mending itself wasn’t something they could be proud of – mending was a sign of poverty. On the other hand, today’s Mending trend is for being proud of their Mindset & Artistry by making mending “visible”. It is a beautiful trend in caring the sustainability. However, we have to be careful in word choices. The motivation behind is completely different – one is “showing off” and one is “hiding”. For that, Sashiko “may be” a form of invisible mending established by the Japanese people. Sashiko isn’t only technique. Sashiko isn’t only the form of “(in)visible mending”. It is more than that, and it is super difficult to define by non-Japanese language because it exists in Japanese culture. Well, by now, you may know one keyword that we always have to have in our mind when we talk about Sashiko, and especially Boro.
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それぞれの国に、それぞれの素晴らしい文化があります。日本の礼儀を尊重する”当たり前”が素晴らしい場合と、米国のカジュアルさ（例えば目上の人にも”Hi”と挨拶で始まる”無駄が少ない”コミュニケーション）が重宝される場合。これは、どちらが素晴らしいかどうかという話ではなく、どこまで想像力を膨らませられるかという話です。
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派手な色合いの糸を使って、わざと補修箇所を目立たせて、「私は持続可能なファッション、環境保護にも関心がある！」と主張し、補修そのものをアートとすることは素晴らしい動きだと思います。ただ、それと「Sashiko」を思いつきで結ぶ付けるのは、本当に寂しいことだなと思うのですよ。間違いじゃないんです。でも、圧倒的に”足りてない”。尊敬する方から頂いた「頑張って」を勝手に重く解釈しつつ、でも頑張らないとなとも思うのです。
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2021-02-07 16:13:15
I am a very unripe beginner in Sashiko and learn a lot through these posts (all tough I always feel the need for more but patience is the key to learning). About this post and the -invisibility of Sashiko mending-, I wonder if the geometric patterns are connected to that. Could it be that they are created to “hide” the mending? Or what is the origin of the geometry?
Thank you for taking the time to share your precious knowledge, little by little I learn a lot!
目立たせてアピールすることと、いかに目立たせない様にするか、と言うのは発想が真逆ですよね。
今は日本でも趣味でやってる人が殆どだから、伝わりにくいかもしれないけど、刺し子を語るならやはり根底にある文化を理解する努力はして欲しいなぁ、、。
It’s very important to know that visible mending is very much a cultural item with a special context. Like in sashiko, many ways of mending clothing and fabric around the world were based on trying to make the mending “as invisible as possible”. You’ve brought up the cultural feelings about mending when Japanese people had no other choice. As excited as i am, personally, of visible mending gaining so much interest, the visible mending trend (or movement) is tied to the abundance of our modern lives. Is it maybe “easier” to be so visible when fabric has become so plentiful?
Perspective is everything. I remember my grandmother speaking about growing up during the Great Depression here in the United States. She was a young girl, about nine when it began. She said that she did not realize how poor they actually were because everyone where she lived was the same: everyone had mended clothes, everyone had cardboard in the bottom of their shoes because the soles had worn through, there were small houses and large families,… She lived in a very small rural town – had she lived in a big city where people she would have seen people in big, fancy houses and finely dressed, she would have been much un-happier in her youth. It was only as adult that she could look back on those years and know the dire conditions. As a young girl, it was just part of life and since she did not know anything else, she was ‘happy’ and there was no shame.
It seems as though mending is similar – why are you mending and how do you feel about needing to mend. I mend my families clothes, but yes, mostly invisible for their ‘good’ clothes – play and outside work clothes, it depends on how easy invisible mending would be. Maybe because I grew up hearing stories from both side of my family about “making-do” because of the Great Depression and World War II, I am not ashamed about making-do with clothes or cooking from scratch and not eating out, but I am also not flaunting it like the visible mending movement or people who pay for jeans that already have holes in them – for me, it is just part of life as a person while not as poor as my grandmother during the depression still has to watch her budget (my mom always mended the holes in our pants so for me, it’s just what we do….). Perspective often changes when we compare how we feel when ‘it’ is happening versus looking back in time and also, what feelings of happiness or sadness do we associate with those happenings. …just my rambling thoughts of today….
本来どういうものであったかを知った上で楽しんでもらえたらと思います。運針教えていただき自然と藍染、草木染めを使うようになりました。出来れば草木染め使ってもらえるといいですね
昔はそれしかなかったわけですから
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Thankyou. This post is very clear and informative
@sashi.co When my children were little, they would occasionally use a ‘big person’ word incorrectly as they were trying to express themselves. They only needed someone to educate them and a willingness to learn and they sometimes still struggled for awhile with its proper use.
Words carry such weight with so much meaning and sometimes emotions. It is sad when a word becomes appropriated by a group and the old definition is thrown to the side – I have seen this happen in my lifetime to a few words or symbols and find myself having to explain to the younger generation that in the context of the old movie or book, what the definition of the time was. I’m not sure why this happens. While a new word is perhaps needed, I can only hope that through education, people of today appreciate and in some way honor ‘Sashiko’ and ‘Boro’ as stitching done out of need but done in a beautiful manner. It is similar to my Acadian ancestors who suffered terribly, found themselves in Southern Louisiana, continued to struggle to survive and somehow from that created a cuisine that is so popular that chefs in other parts of the country often think they know what it is about (methods, ingredients and flavor) but do not really know so they use the words of our cuisine when what they cook is not our cuisine.
Inspired by a culture is not the same as truly knowing a culture. Maybe that is part of what needs to be said and acknowledged. Learning another culture is not done by reading one recipe or tasting one dish of food or looking at a photo of stitching. There is so much more to a culture. Thank you for the explanations of your culture. The more you explain, the more we understand.
Every post I learn a bit more.😀
My husband took a redundancy so he does not want to buy clothes but his clothes now have holes or very thing patches of cloth. Some clothes we don’t want to throw away (special denim last run off d machines etc special things)so I offered sashiko to help but I used same colour thread to make invisible because we do feel some shame inside . This was a practical experience and lesson for me .