Japanese Embroidery 

Silk Embroidery

The stitching of the elite, silk embroidery came to the area that would later be known as Japan, from mainland China, along with Buddhism in the 6th Century CE. For centuries, this embroidery was used on religious tapestries and ceremonial robes, as a mode of instruction for Buddhist monks, which kept the technique strictly in the hands of temple workers. 

In the Heian period, 794 to 1185 CE, silk embroidery started to appear on kimono of the ruling class. Once the capital moved from Nara to Kyoto in 794 CE, the center of silk embroidery production moved there too, since the demand for silk embroidery predominantly was from the women who worked and lived in the imperial palace.

Motifs diversified to stylizations of nature, plants, flowers, ocean waves and everyday items like temari balls and fans.

Eventually silk embroidery made its way into the skilled class when Noh performers started to wear garments with designs on them, stitched with silk threads. These garments were often second hand cast offs that were gifted to the performers from their wealthy patrons. 

One of the most distinct features of Japanese silk embroidery is the use of raised elements. These are created through repeated layers of stitching being applied to the same area, or with padding that uses silk covered cording. The stitches used in silk embroidery are various, most commonly chain stitch, staggered diagonal step stitch, various knots, and running stitches.

Typically done on panels of silk that are mounted on frames to keep the material taut while being worked, Japanese silk embroidery used sharp needles and flat colored silk threads. 

Today, silk embroidery is studied through dedicated schools around the world. There are several levels of difficulty that need to be mastered before a title of master stitcher is awarded to the needle worker. This embroidery is used for wall hangings, chair cushions and smaller items like boxes. 

Alongside silk embroidery, a simpler embroidery evolved; sashiko. Sashiko, used by the peasant class, is based on the running stitch. Running stitch is universal in most embroidery techniques, no matter the cultural origins. This makes it highly likely that its use developed parallel in several areas of the world at the same, or at different periods in history. 

Sashiko

Sashiko is a centuries old visible mending technique practised by the peasant class in Japan. It is a family of embroidery styles that have one thing in common, the running stitch.

Prior to WWII, before international trade became global in Japan, textile resources were not abundant. For the peasantry clothing was made from hemp or linen, often from home grown fibers and commonly dyed with local plants to be blue, black, grey or brown due to legal restrictions placed on what they could wear. These pieces of clothing, when worn thin, usually on the shoulders, and down the back, were then patched, often over and over, with layers of scrap fabric cut from other garments that had long since stopped being wearable. These patches were stitched down with lines of running stitch.

Both silk embroidery and sashiko saw a drastic decline in use after the westernization of Japan in the post -WWII era. Traditional clothing was put aside in favor of the clothing being imported from other markets. 

It has only been through opening up these forms of embroidery to a wider audience from outside of Japan interested students that these techniques are still alive and well, and even seeing a revival today.

Variants

Boro

The simplest form of sashiko is boro. Purely meant for mending, it is a free style embroidery where lines of running stitch are sewn in close parallel lines through length and width of the patch, not just around the edges. This creates a sturdy patch that will not easily lift off or wear through with use.

Boro is typically sewn without a pattern or design in mind, with sets of line running in different directions as is needed. Depending on the aesthetic of the stitcher the thread used could match the fabric, or may be contrasting to create some visual interest. Patches on historical garments could have their edges exposed, or tucked under.

When a garment became too patched to wear in public, it became nightwear, material to patch futon covers, a source of patches for other garments, and lastly cleaning rags, sometimes having gone through generations of wearers before being downgraded.

Sashiko

Creativity bloomed out of utilitarian boro. From dense straight lines came lines that broke off into geometric shapes, or stylized renditions of plants and land forms, like hemp leaves, sea waves, and fish scales. Sashiko can be used in small patches or, because of the repeating designs, can be stitched over the expanse of a garment.

One defining characteristic of sashiko is that when lines of stitches will run into each other, the stitches are purposely spaced so that the stitches will not cross each other. The length of stitches ideally should be at a ratio of 2 to 3 times as long as the stitch on the reverse side, no more than the length of a grain of rice. 

Hitozashi

(Yamagata Prefecture, mainland Japan)

More dense than sashiko, hitozashi is still based on the running stitch. A simple repeating pattern of running stitches is worked in grid patterns, laid as the foundation, often with intersecting threads overlapping each other. Then a thread will be needle woven under these stitches to create the pattern, usually stylized flowers, stars and leaves. This process creates a light pucker to the backing fabric, which, when used on historic garments, helped to make small pockets of insulating air. When worn, these areas would capture the body heat of the wearer and help keep them warm in cold seasons.

Kogin (Honshu)

Using only long and short straight stitches, kogin is a counted thread variant of sashiko. Stitched on even woven linen fabric, the dense, relating patterns are created by the length of the stitch. The length is based on the number of threads that are counted over between where the needle comes up on the surface of the fabric to where it goes down at the back. Mostly the pattern is revealed in the negative space that isn’t stitched, showing in relief flowers, leaves and circles among stitched diamonds and squares.

All forms of sashiko are worked on unmounted pieces of fabric. A long needle with a large eye to take in coarser gauges of thread are used. Several stitches can be collected on the needle as it is worked in small stabbing motions, before the thread is pulled through the material. In this way lone lines of the design can be completed in a short amount of time.

Today all styles of sashiko are used in either visible mending projects for garments, bags or other personal items, or as decorative embellishments on sewing projects like book covers, pincushions or throw pillows. 

Examples of sashiko and Japanese silk embroidery can be found at museums like the Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Ave, Toronto, ON M5G 2H5.