In my personal opinion, to try to keep out the cold using limited resources is much more difficult than to keep out the heat.
Today I would like to introduce Hirosaki-Kogin, a traditional stitching technique that has been developped from such attempt to survive the severe winter weather in the Tohoku region.
These coasters with unique embroidered designs are manufactured and sold by Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo (弘前こぎん研究所："Institute of Hirosaki-Kogin").
To begin with, let me simply explain the details of Kogin stitching with its history and background.
Hirosaki is a city of a second northmost prefecture in Japan, where the outdoor temperature in the middle of winter is -10 degree Celsius sometimes! (and is also famous for delicious apples:))
According to the article (jp ver) of Wikipedia, in 1724 (mid-Edo perio), the then-governor of this area stipulated a rule that banned luxuious life of farmers. Under this rule, the farmers were not permitted to wear cotton clothes, and had to put on clothes of hemp. However, hemp fibers are too coarse to keep out the severely chilly window in winter.
For this reason, a technique of doing embroidery all over the clothes began to be used in order to improve wind-proof performance, and is the embroidery technique that is currently known as "sashi-Kogin" (Kogin-stitching). The clothes with such embroidery had been worn since about 1740's.
Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo(弘前こぎん研究所: "Institute of Hirosaki Kogin"）, which was established in 1960 for the purpose of basic research of Kogin, explains that girls at farmer families started to lean kogin-stitching when they are 5-6 years old, and did embroidery as if they are competing the beauty of it as they grew up. So it can be said that the unique Kogin crafts are had been developed by the hands of common people, and is the embodiment of their individual craftsmenship!
The rule was abolished after a while, then the time changed and the old-type daily wears were replaced by the Western clothes. These days the clothese with Kogin-stiching are not used any more, but Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo is now manufacturing and selling bags, purse, and other small products made using the Kogin technique in order to let people know the tradition of this embroidery and its beauty.
And I found a website of a project called "kogin" by young people, who seem to be trying making modern versions of kogin. It's quite interesting!
*Thanks to Akko, my friend I mentioned before, for letting me know this great tradition of Kogin and giving the picture above :)
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