Boro
Boro are a class of Japanese textiles that have been mended or patched together. The word comes from boroboro, something tattered or repaired, and in our handling it names some of the most layered and moving cloth that reaches the collection: working garments and bedding repaired by hand for decades until the repairs became the cloth.
Definition
Boro typically means cotton, linen and hemp, mostly hand-woven by farming families, stitched or re-woven together to make a many-layered material for warm, practical clothing. Most boro is dyed with indigo, historically the least costly and easiest dyestuff for the lower classes to grow, and many pieces include kasuri, the Japanese ikat. The patches are held with running stitches, and that stitching, sashiko, is often part of the look.
Boro is not a pattern or a technique so much as a history. A boro coat or sleeping mat is the record of every repair made to it, often by several generations of one family.
Origin
In the Edo period, fine silk and cotton were reserved for a small part of the upper classes, through dress edicts or simply cost, and silk was unsuited to work. Many working people grew, spun, dyed and wove their own cloth, and it was economical to reuse old clothing as fabric for new. Warmer fibres such as cotton were less available, so layering became a necessity. Garments were repaired with spare scraps, and the repaired clothing was used for generations.
Indigo helped. It was easy to grow, it repelled moths, and a single dyebath could be used many times; cloth dyed repeatedly in a weak bath was more colourfast and resistant to wear. After the Meiji period, as living standards rose, most boro was thrown away, and to many families it was a reminder of poverty. Over time it came to exemplify wabi-sabi, the beauty of wear. The folklorist Chuzaburo Tanaka collected more than 20,000 pieces, 786 of which are designated Important Tangible Cultural Properties, and 1,500 were exhibited at the Amuse Museum in Asakusa, Tokyo.
A related cloth, saki-ori, was woven from old kimono cut into strips about a centimetre wide; one obi needed roughly three old kimono.
Key facts
| Meaning | From boroboro, tattered or repaired |
|---|---|
| Fibres | Cotton, linen, hemp |
| Dye | Mostly indigo; often with kasuri |
| Period | Edo period into the early twentieth century |
| Preservation | Chuzaburo Tanaka collection, over 20,000 pieces; 786 Important Tangible Cultural Properties |
| Related weave | Saki-ori, woven from strips of old kimono |
How to identify it
- Count the layers. In our handling, true boro shows patches over patches, with older cloth visible beneath newer mends at the edges.
- Read the indigo. Patches dyed at different times fade to different blues; a uniform colour across every patch suggests modern work.
- Look at the stitches. Hand running stitches vary in length and tension; machine stitching is regular.
- Old or made-to-look-old. Most surviving boro is either antique or a modern reproduction made as craft; designers also print or weave boro effects. The house names which.
Where it appears in the collection
Antique boro sits on the kimono and textile heritage shelf, including an indigo boro noragi, heavily patched and a boro hanten in indigo patchwork. The designer echo appears in pieces such as the Kapital Kountry boro jacket. For a longer read, see our guide to boro textiles and our page on sashiko and boro.
Related entries
- Sashiko: the stitching that holds boro together.
- Hanten: the short coat often found in boro.
- Kimono remake: the modern habit of reuse.
Sources
- Boro (textile), encyclopaedia entry, etymology, history, preservation and saki-ori. wikipedia.org
Last reviewed 15 November 2026. The Japonista Curation and Concierge Team, Tokyo, Japan.