These mornings my ‘first coffee of the day’ time is spent with the NHK series, ‘Zero Waste Life’. Each episode is about 15 minutes long and each one focuses on some aspect of reusing/recycling items that would normally be tossed in the trash. In the West, we’re constantly faced with the question, “What do we do with clothing items that we don’t want or use anymore?” In Japan, the problem is the same but often involves used kimono(s) that can’t be resold.
Miyoshi Chika from the Aomori Prefecture takes these old kimono and weaves brand ‘new’ products from them. In Aomori, cloth was always imported. Because of this, even old material was valuable and a new creative process was invented. Sakiori is the term used for this and it actually became a style of clothing, vaguely similar to the quilts made of bits of cloth here in Canada.
In Japan, it seems that every creation is thought to have a life force and one of the primary holders of this force seems to be the kimono. Momiji, the non-profit senior’s care facility where I volunteer has its own kimono reclamation project. In this NHK Zero Waste Life episode, Myoshi Chika uses the old material, usually silk, in a loom to create items such as place mats and purses. She’s a true artist, deftly using a loom to maintain the life force in the material so it can live on for decades.
Check out the episode as well as the series. If you’re concerned about our future, you could do worse than taking 15 minutes of your time for any one of the episodes in this series.
Sakiori – Using old kimono material for new products
Cheers!
Brian Mahoney
January 8, 2025