I often receive a heartwarming comment, “Thank you for your generosity”. Sure, it is my goal to share the Sashiko we practice. It is my pleasure. However… “sharing” was an extreme choice I had made in devastation. I am not (always) a good-positive person with an abundance mind to “share”. I am just desperate in protecting my own culture I grew up with from unnecessary changes.
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I introduced a concept of “守破離 (Shuhari)” before. I guess this Japanese-like mindset of “learning” is just “too much work” for many people in expectation of getting instant gratification. Therefore, many teach foriegn culture before sufficient learning. I tried to be quiet before (because I thought it was the way to “protect” the culture). Now, over the Internet where anyone can say anything, I realize that “sharing” is the only way to protect the culture, even if it ends up with losing my possible profit. I am worried about the future. “Sharing” may crash the business I have today. However, I just can’t let ignorance change my own culture. One may say: “Sashiko is a form of stitching to make rice-grain size stitch on the line & stitches pre printed fabric. Whatever thread & needle is good. Just embrace the imperfection”. In this “often” used Sashiko description, only phrase I agree is that the “Sashiko is a form of stitching”.
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I am happy that you enjoy what I share. Am I a saint? No, I am just struggling to protect my own identity.
People ask: “Is it okay to do Sashiko on Denim Jeans. It isn’t traditional.” – I answer, “Yes, of course. But, please try to learn what Sashiko is”. I am NOT denying the change in culture – without changes, it isn’t culture. I just want “changes” to be sincere, not by ignorance, not for the profit of someone who doesn’t belong to.
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“Sashiko & Denim” is one change. Before I started stitching denim in 2006, it wasn’t as popular as today. I didn’t see many Sashiko & Denim done together. As I had shared an analogy with “Aspirin”, damaging the denim for the purpose of mending, and calling it Sashiko Mending, is very culturally distorted & “wrong”. Apply Sashiko stitchings to strengthen the denim fabric when the denim gets a bit soft but before a hole is probably the “original” image of Sashiko & Denim. We can prolong the denim life by Sashiko. Well, eventually, no matter how much we stitch, the denim will get a hole. Then, it is time to mend the denim with Sashiko stitching (if you want). So, I am NOT saying Sashiko mending with denim is all inappropriate. If you happen to have a hole, it is very beautiful to repair it instead of replacing it. I just want to share how “irrational” to see the act of damaging the fabric for the purpose of mending. You would feel the same if one is damaging their health by not-sleeping, yet celebrating the recovery from headache by taking aspirin.
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Mending itself is perfectly fine. However, mending isn’t the whole picture of Sashiko. I want them to learn how to stitch throughout the denim first so we can prolong the denim life before mending.
A definition is powerful. It gives us a clear description for the mutual understanding. Without proper definition, a discussion won’t be valid. However, at the same time, when a definition is done by ignorance (either with good intention or for one’s convenience), it has the power to change something important. I used to explain Sashiko as wisdom in “poverty”. Poor Japanese people practiced Sashiko. It is true that they were in extremely harsh conditions, but I now wonder if it is okay for us to define them as “poor”. This is profound advice from my new menter, Yoshiko Wada (@yoshiko_wada_). I have been thinking & imagining & researching. Translation & definition is difficult because “poverty” in Japanese – “貧しさ” has a bit different nuance. (So I think it is okay to say that Sashiko was in 貧しさ）.
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We have our personal definition of words. How do you define “being rich/wealthy”? A pile of c-notes in front of you? A digital number on the PC monitor? List of real-estate you own? I have a vivid boundary between “rich” and “decent”. For me, “being rich” means that I can purchase what I want, in a grocery store, without checking the price tag. For me, “being rich” is liberation from minor worries for next week. I do not want a fancy watch because it doesn’t mean “being wealthy” to me. I know you have different definitions. It is quite natural with wanting “money”. We just have to know that the definition can be “personalized” based on the condition.
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For me, Cultural Appropriation causes pain when people pretend that they know the definition of something foreign. Not knowing is fine. We are here to learn. I am learning – flipping all of my definitions of Sashiko as “wisdom in poverty”, thanks to Yoshiko-Sensei (She is “the” teacher of Shibori, so please learn from her, too).
It was 2020 I wrote the script. After so many struggles, I uploaded the video about “Sashiko & Cultural Appropriation”. It is on our Youtube.
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There is a significant “twist” in translation (or filtering) when Sashiko was introduced with “mending”. Many people think Sashiko is a mending technique. It is true that mending is a part of Sashiko, but not sufficient description. Mending is a small part of Sashiko. Let me bring up a challenging analogy to explain this twist.
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When we have a headache, we take pain-killer pill. Although there is nothing wrong with pills, it is better to take care of our health so we do not need the pain killer. Sashiko is “self-care (before taking the pill)” and mending is the pill itself. The Japanese practiced Sashiko so they didn’t need to mend so often. Now, people are enjoying Sashiko as if they enjoy taking the pain-killer with neglecting their health. Even more strange, some damage themselves to have a headache so that they can take aspirin (damage the fabric to have “Sashiko mending”). There is nothing wrong with depending on the medicine. However, it is not a core of our health-care. If we start accepting that we all need to take aspirin without caring about our health, or even damaging our brain on-purpose to enjoy the aspirin, something essencial will be lost.
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In 30+ years of my life with Sashiko, I personally never used the word “Sashiko mending” in Japanese. Yes, mending is a very important part of Sashiko, but not the core. Since many misunderstand, when non-Japanese get profit out of this “twist”, then I consider it as “C/A” which I hope I successfully described in the video. Boro is also NOT a word for mending technique (please read the past posts. The description to your question is there).
I concluded the 400 seconds presentation on @SelvedgeMagazine with a statement: “Sashiko was a Japanese form of stitching to pray for another day to live…” Then, I received a request to elaborate what I meant by “praying”. Yes, it is my pleasure to do so. However, it requires some conditions to be shared to explain – some Japanese philosophy – which is deeply related to Animism. I added a link to my article about “Sashiko and Animism”. Please find it from my profile link. ☆ As you imagine, the “pray” in this context is a bit different from the western style of praying as defined “to address God with confession or thanksgiving”. The majority of Japanese who lived in Shinto didn’t believe in “One God” asking for forgiveness. They believed each “element” contains the spirit (God), and therefore they appreciated what they had. ☆ “Stitching to pray for another day” represents the “time to be mindful of what they had”. As much as they may have lived in harsh conditions, they appreciated what they had. This is a brief explanation of “Pray” in the context. By the way, it is kind of interesting, but in Japanese Shinto, in my understanding, the “praying for specific spirit” was a type of “contract” between human and spirit. Ah… I am going off from the main topic… anyhow, the Japanese naturally believed in animism in their ordinary, and therefore, the prayer was more like a “custom” to appreciate what they have. I will keep sharing the stories on this. Please read the article first if you are interested.
Let’s “celebrate” our new name of this account, @SashikoStory…. Yeah… what a Sunday. 日本語の大切なお知らせが続きます。スクロールダウンください。 It was okay before, now the previous name “Sashi,Co” (with period, not comma) seems to be violating some Instagram rules. so, do not use period, please. Use our new name 📛 ☆ Keiko and I named it with many wishes. It is sad to change the account name here, but the new name “SashikoStory” may be more self-explanatory for what we do here. Since Atsushi & Keiko = as Sashi,Co was something we put so much effort on, please, please help us out to share Sashi,Co is now also @SashikoStory. (We will keep using the previous name in other platforms). If you have our previous name in your profile or description, your account may be restricted somehow. Please change it to @SashikoStory. Thank you very very much. ☆ All of other account I have, @upcyclestitches and @sashiko_dad are both recovered as well.
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大変お騒がせしました。原因は僕のアカウント名でした。笑えないけど、仕方ない。半分やけくそです。淳＝Sashi,Coで定着してきた感じはするし、思いも沢山込めた名前なので残念ですが、これは仕方ないです。ここインスタグラムでは新しい名前、@SashikoStoryで行きます！ ☆ 問題は、「ピリオド」だったみたいです。コンマでもハイフンでも大丈夫っぽいのですが、ピリオドだとURLだと認識されて弾かれてるみたい。これまで何も問題なかったし注意もなかったので、吃驚はしているのですが……。これまでにご縁を頂いて、以前の名前「Sashi,Co」をプロフィールに入れて下さっている心温かい方は、プロフィールに制限対象の名前があることで、ここ数日、投稿等に制限がかかってしまっていたようです。本当にごめんなさい。このアカウント自体は何もなく、自分をタグ付けすることもなかったので、今日になるまで気が付きませんでした。これに懲りず、また@SashikoStoryをタグ付け頂けると嬉しいです。今度は……大丈夫だろ……と。新しい名前で、少し違和感があるかもしれませんが、インスタグラム以外では変わらずSashi,Coを使い続ける予定です。引き続き、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。 ☆ #Sashiko #SashikoStitching #刺し子 #SashikoStory March 21, 2021 at 07:46PM
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As Sashiko gets popular, I receive many kinds of questions & requests. Please check this article for Sashiko Copyright on our stories and photos. As a summary, one may refer a photo and/or a story (caption) without for free with appropriatie citation. We do not give up the copyrights, though. If you are interested in using our photos and stories for commertial purpose, please contact us for the details.
Summary of Sashiko Copyright and Usage
Contribution/Writing
Commercial Purpose such as publication, part of the books, and/or product description: With Fee.
Academic purpose: Maybe without fee.
Interview on Zoom/Phone
Commercial Purpose: Maybe without fee
Academic purpose: Free of charge
Using a photo of our Sashiko work & reposting
Commercial Purpose: With Fee
Non-Commercial Purpose: Free of charge with proper citation
Reposting our photos & Stories
Please feel free to use our photos & stories which I have already made them public on Instagram, Facebook, or on this website. We have not given up the copyright. Therefore, please use the proper citation to the origin of the photo (if it is from Instagram, put the account name to share where the photo/story is from). As far as the proper citation is done, there is no need to contact me.
If you would like to use our photos/captions for your business, please contact me first. Based on your intention & request, I may be able to offer something for free of charge.
Translating our Sashiko Stories
If you are willing to translate what I share, please feel free to do so with proper citation. I will not be responsible for te translation on your ends, but I am happy to communicate to the people outside of Japanese & English lanuguage.
Reasoning behind the Fees
You may wonder why I charge fees on writing, and not on Interview. It is the same “time” that I need to contribute. What I care here is “who will be responsible on publication”.
The contents, either writing, audio or video, will be the responsibility of interviewer based on what I was intereviewed on. I do not have any control to what the interviewer summarize. Therefore, the responsibility will not be mine. However, when I write/contribute to a publication, books, and other media, the “writing itself” will carry the responsibility for me to “write” what I really want to share. In order to make sure that I write what I need to write, I charge fee & will spend more time on writing. By charging fee, it is also okay for the author to change their mind. Often, because the general understanding of Sashiko may be different, I do not write what the author may be expecting me to write.
The category of “Maybe with Fee” is that I do not have a specific rule for this category. If you can offer me something besides monetary compensation, I am happy to consider that.
Please do basic research before asking
Basically speaking, it is my pleasure to share the photos & stories with other media and individuals. It is pretty much the whole purpose of what I do – to share the Sashiko we practice. However, unfortunately, in last 4 years of sharing Sashiko, I have had quite sad & painful experiences in this “Copyright and sharing”. There was an author who contacted me, asking me to write a section about Sashiko. I asked for the compensation, if not, taking the Sashiko Class so that we could be on the same page. The answer was “Oh, there are people who wish to ‘pay’ me to write for publicity. I will find someone else”. Well… that’s how sad the communication can be.
I am a human, so I may write for the purpose of publicity. However, I will never distort what I would like to share for the profit or publicity. I write what I need to write. If I write what I need to write for free of charge, then the author may just throw it away to the trash bin (if the contents of my contribution didn’t match to the author’s goal).
I share a lot of stories on SNS, this website, and Patreon. Please do basic research first before contacting me.
Please read the related article about this topic as well.
It is my sincere wish to share as many stories as possible in sharing the Sashiko we practice. The Youtube Playlist of “Sashiko Stories” is one of my challenges. Also, a daily update on Instagram with Sashiko Story is another challenge to share the stories. In addition to these platform, I am adding another challenge to share more stories: Sashiko Talk – where I can share the unedited voice of our Sashiko.
The true value of Sashiko Talk
In today’s society where anyone can say anything on any topics with modifying the surface, I realize it is very valuable to share the “unedited version” of its practice – here, Sashiko. “Sashiko Live Streaming” is the answer to this relization. I have been receving many compliment to the Live Streaming where viewers can enjoy our Sashiko stories while watching how I would do Sashiko stitching. At the same time, in the new normal of Covid-19, scheduling the Live-Streaming became very challenging. When the Live Streaming is not scheduled, it became quite difficult for me to talk on a specific subject because English is not my first language.
Sashiko Talk is similar to the Sashiko Live Streaming. The difference is that I invite my Sashiko friends to talk about Sashiko instead of me talking by myself. With having conversation partners, I can elaborate my stories even better. It is my intention for you to listen to the Youtube video as if you are the part of the group. Please bring your own Sashiko project, and stitch together while enjoying the Sashiko Talk.
I often talk by myself. On SNS, in Live Streaming, my voice tend to be understood as my opinion. Listening to the voices around my voice is the true value of Sashiko talk – to balance what I keep saying.
I would like to invite “anyone” interested in Sashiko eventually. As of now, I priotize the people I already know (such as in Patreon / Sashiko Online Class). If you have a strong desire to be on Sashiko Talk, please contact me with introducing who you are. I am happy to consider, but I would like to know you first.
Archives of Sashiko Talk in 2021
I am still improving the way of filiming us & broadcasting the video. By listening to those talks, I believe you will understand what Sashiko is for us much better than just reading books. Please let me know if you have any requests to bring up as a topic.
Sashiko became very popular in a variety of interpretation. I am happy that many people are interested in Sashiko. However, Sashiko is more than just hand-stitching. We have Sashiko Story to share what Sashiko is for us, for the Japanese. Please follow the Instagram/Facebook Account to read our Sashiko Story. Your understanding of Sashiko is probably not wrong, but probably insufficient. I share Sashiko Stories to fulfill the missing essence.
I make myself to share a Sashiko Story a day with introducing the photos of our Sashiko. All of the Sashiko on the photos are done by us: either myself, my mother Keiko, and/or our Sashiko friends who help our Sashi.Co project (or altogether).
Sharing Sashiko Story is a contribution I can do to the Sashiko Tradition. It is all free. Please follow the account & enjoy how Sashiko can be more than just stitching.
This is a comparison photo of back & front of one “Boro To be Jacket” we are working on. There are stories behind why we make one side “back” and one side “Front”. Sashiko Stories are the significance of the Japanese culture.
Sashiko is our life. Sharing Sashiko Story includes sharing very personal stories. Unfortunately, it is too risky to share “everything” where anyone can reach to. I have had very painful experiences caused by cruel trolls. Without many encouragement from followers & supporters on Patreon, I would have stopped sharing it. It can be too painful.
As a return to the support, I share very honest & personal stories on Patreon platform. I am willing to take a risk to share “everything” where they are willing to spend some money on what I write.
There are more than 100 articles in Patreon, and they are all exclusive. Your support to what Atsushi shares is very much appreciated.
One of the frequent questions I receive is about “Knots” at the beginning & ending of Sashiko stitching. “Does Sashiko make knots or No knots?” can be a confusing questions because a learner can find many kinds of answers. It is very understandle to wonder it because one book say “Make knots”, and the other article says “Do not make knots”.
Sashiko make Knots Or Not?
I answer the question on Live Streaming since a listener asked a question.
The Question/request was:
A request for discussion on “Knots”and “No-Knots” in Sashiko.
Is there variety in traditions among stitches?
Is the book oversimplified?
For the answer, please watch the Youtube video & read the summary below. This article is for those who would need a script to understand the video contents.
Script in Youtube after the unedit version of my answer (Please start from:)
After my personal answer to this question, I then moved to a discussion with Sharron if we can find a similar example in the US ordinary. Although it is not the exact same discussion, we came up with an interesting topic – the topping of “pineapple” on pizza. If you are interested, please check the whole Live Streaming on Feb.14th 2021 (https://youtu.be/mwqrEtbbnGA ).
To summarize the question if a Sashiko stitcher should make a knot or should avoid making a knot in Sashiko stitching, I would summarize as follows.
There is no “should” in the decision of making a knot or not. It is based on the preference & project condition. However, I want a Sashiko stitcher to be able to choose. There is a big difference between “Can’t” and “Don’t”. One shouldn’t say that “It is normal to make knots in Sashiko” without the ability to avoid making knots.
Sashiko existed in numbers of places and communities in Japan. Therefore, there is much variety in traditions among stitches. However, within my understanding, all of the Sashiko Stitchers I had to talk to chose Kasane or making knots. They all can “choose”. That’s what I want you to aim for.
It is almost impossible to write the whole picture of Sashiko in one book. It is similar to writing a book about “All cooking” in one book. We would need to focus on each cooking style like “How to make some Japanese ◯◯”. For that, some books I know are oversimplified without proper explanation.
There are many reasons why the Japanese use Kasane to avoid knots. It is very important to learn why & how to avoid the Cultural Appropriation. It makes so much sense when we learn the stories. The Sashiko was a stitching practice in poverty. They didn’t have luxury to cover the backside of Fabric. They wanted to make the backside as beautiful as the front. Then, the knots became a problem.
Meanwhile, when the purpose is for purely mending, knots could be must, therefore we can find knots in some Boro pieces.
Please try to see the whole picture of Sashiko
It is my goal to share the “whole” picture of Sashiko. Please follow our channel & account to learn more about Sashiko. The knowledge you have about Sashiko is probably correct – however, if you do not read Japanese, I can say your knowledge of Sashiko is not sufficient yet.
Not knowing is okay. I am here for that. Please do not ignore the voice once you learn the “whole”.
I added some links to useful articles & information in the description field. I hope you enjoy it.
