In rural Japan, farmers were self-sufficient and relied on their own skills of invention and frugality to sustain the lives of their families.  Certainly nothing was wasted and material of all sorts was re-used and re-purposed until its usefulness was exhausted.  These balls of rope which are made from old cotton illustrate this point.

They’re braided from cotton scraps and the result is not only useful—this rope still seems very able to do hard work—but also very beautiful, in a self-effacing way.  I am sure that whoever made these balls of rope, for whatever purpose, would be dumbfounded to think that we are now admiring his or her handiwork.

Most likely this rope was made in northern Japan; those of you who own the book “Boro: Rags and Tatters from the Far North of Japan” will see similar examples to these at the end of the book.

Today’s post shows a collection of five pieces, each similar in style to one another, but slightly different in function.  The center piece is a mino, or a kind of thatched rain cape, the four flanking pieces are called seate.  A seate is a back pad used to cushion the body against the weight and abrasion of carrying  heavy burden.

The two seate on the left are woven from strips of recycled rags; the two on the right are woven from rice straw, rush or sedge.

The mino, below, and shown in detail photos, is woven from rice straw and some kind of bast or tree bark fiber; there may be component of shina (linden) twisted into the neck area and the rope twine.  I was told the black strands are seaweed.

Most likely these seate and mino date to the mid-twentieth century: up until mid-century, some rural areas of Japan were still very much operating as they had for centuries, using age-old materials and methods for their everyday farming, foraging and sustenance.

If you happen upon ukiyo-e prints or antique Japanese paintings, occasionally you’ll see a country scene that shows a local person dressed in a mino and some kind of head covering.

Without sounding disparaging, these seate and mino suggest “tribal” art  in their manner of weaving, decoration and materials.