Kogin Embroidery

At our recent Japan Day held at the High School here on base, I was able to visit with one of the local artist who teaches a craft I was actually very familiar with. My Grandmother taught me how to make afghans with monks cloth and yarn, called Swedish Weaving. It is something that I enjoy doing quite a bit and have been frustrated with not being able to get the monks cloth here (thanks mom for the material you just sent).

After staying in the room for a bit to do my "sample" they were teaching the Americans to do, and being told how well and quickly I picked up on it, I ran back to the house to grab the afghan that my Grandfather made for me as well as one that I am currently working on myself. When I got back to the room they were demonstrating in, the main teacher had gone on a lunch break. The other "teachers" (they are actually students of the head teacher in their apprenticeship, all in their mid to late 40's) quickly surrounded me as I tried to explain that we had a similar craft. My two afghans were quickly spread across a table and I had about 8 Japanese men and women closely inspectin them. It was a little embarrassing. They kept commenting on how beautiful they both were and how it was such a great work.

They were amazed by the variegated yarn we used. It was kind of funny, the one that I was working on had the yarn and needle with it and after they had me show them how to use our flat needle and they tried themselves, somehow....my yarn disappeared. Not a problem, I can get more. I had taken my two afghans in thinking that it would be a quick, "See, we have something kind of like that" to the teacher and about 10 minutes later I would leave. Nope! Over an hour...yes 1 HOUR later, I left. Someone had run quickly off to get the teacher from her lunch break so she could see my work. We had fun trying to work with our interpreter (that turned out to be the Mayor of Misawa) in explaining it all. We also exchanged books. I gave the teacher one of the Monks Cloth Swedish Weaving Books and she gave me a book of the Japanese Kogin Embroidery. They all wanted to take pictures of the afghans and watch me do a line myself. It was quite fun to see how close our crafts were but I was amazed at how intricate theirs can be. The material we were working with was simple burlap, the same material that the students begin with, and it can be bought for less than Y100 (100 yen) at the local version on Lowes. The material that they move up to (see examples) can cost up to several thousand Yen for every 10cm. WOW!!!!

What meant the most to me was how the Teacher was explaining that this was a craft that was traditionally passed down generation to generation. She pointed to one of the older ladies that had been helping the Americans to make their project and told me this was her daughter. She then pointed to a much younger girl (she could not have been older than 9) sitting in the corner working on her own project and told me this was her granddaughter. I was a bit emotional (yes, me emotional...like always) in explaining again that this was taught to me by my grandmother and that the completed afghan was the work of my grandfather, now in the hospital.

That afghan means a lot to me. When I am just having a crummy day, I go into my bedroom and lock the door. Then I crawl under my afghan on the bed and just lay there. I wish there were words to describe just how comforting laying there under my PawPaw's afghan for 20 minutes can be.

Sooo...PawPaw (and JuneBug) you are a superstar when it comes to the weaving here in Japan and the instructor was very impressed with your work. It was very neat to share a common

craft we seem to share with the Japanese people.

Below is the description that was on a handout they gave us:

Kogin Embroidery was designed by farmers in Tsugara, Japan. Tsugaru is located in the Aomori prefecture. This is a popular craft during the winter months, when farmers can't harvest their land.

First they make hemp from Karamushi, a type of reed. The hemp is then dyed "Ai", also known as Indigo. This fabric is used to make clothes. Finally, a pattern is embroidered using thread. This cloth is a good insulator and is strong. Embroidery is also used for repairing clothes.

Kohaba clothes are called "Koginu". Koginu means cloth that is short and single ply made by hemp. Koginu is a stitch design called Sashikogin. This beautiful design is a part of Kogin. Once "Sashi" and "Kogin" stitches are designed it is called "Koginazshi".

Oh, on the pictures, the one with the green diamonds and brown tic-tack-toe board is the sample one I made.