Boro is a method of hand-sewn, repeated repairs that use sashiko – a running stitch, ideally the size of a grain of rice – to beautifully preserve and recycle fabric.

Nineteenth and early 20th-century rural Japanese women used boro to create captivating works of art with their stitches and make-do repairs. At a time in history when cloth was a precious commodity, these textiles were cherished and have been passed down through generations.

The textiles in Boro – Timeworn Textiles of Japan are drawn from the substantial collection of New Zealand artist Pip Steel. The exhibition features a variety of boro methods and a range of different textiles, from futon covers and oshi-e, 19th century silk dolls, to momohiki, garments worn by farmers and workers, noragi, work jackets and maekake, work aprons, to tabi, Japanese socks and tebukuro, mittens. There are also examples of furoshiki, traditional wrapping, zokins (or zoukins), dusting cloths, mitsuami, traditional braided rope, komebukuro, rice bags, sake straining bags, iwai-bandori and stunning fabric sample books called shima-cho.

Early examples of boro were made from hemp, ramie and linen, known as asa, and later cotton, when it became available. The fibres were hand-spun, hand-woven and naturally indigo-dyed.

"Seeing and holding these tattered garments used by farmers and villagers in times past, I cannot help but feel that they still exude the warmth and vigor of the bodies they once protected, and these scraps are trying to tell us their stories, provided that we only listen closely and with open hearts.’

—Tatsuichi Horikiri, Japanese collector, social historian and research scholar