MORE COPIES OF THIS BOOK ARE BEING REPRINTED! 

Copies will be signed by Yoshiko on the first page of her essay.

By: The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, National Museum of World Culture, Sweden

This exquisitely designed book accompanies the exhibition, Boro - The Art of Necessity, which tells the story of artistry born from hardship. It traces history and memories through patched and mended fabrics – a Japanese textile culture in which no scrap of material was wasted and whose economical creations were passed down through generations. 

The BORO book contains photos documenting key pieces from the collection of folklorist, archaeologist and ethnologist Chuzaburo Tanaka (1933–2013). This publication surveys the history of boro as textiles but also examines boro’s changing social, economic and aesthetic status.

Included are critical texts by Staffan Appelgren, Petra Holmberg, Philip Warkander, and Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada with her essay on the etymological and cultural evolution of boro, titled “What is Boro?” Photo-documentation by Kyoichi Tsuzuki. 

ISBN: 9789198606584 

English, softcover with real cloth laminate, 170x240mm, 168 pages, 141 Color pages

Published by: Art and Theory Publishing in collaboration with the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities of Stockholm, Sweden

About the exhibition:

As the first museum in Europe to exhibit Chuzaburo Tanaka’s collection of boro textiles, the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities will be showing a unique collection of boro objects loaned from the Amuse Museum in Tokyo. The collection has previously been on view in New York, Beijing and Sydney. The museum is currently closed, but the exhibition is ready to be presented as soon as the museum can reopen and will be on view until 15 August 2021.

The exhibition also features Swedish artists’ own interpretations of boro as art. Newly produced works by fashion brand Rave Review and poet Burcu Sahin will be on view. The Swedish-Japanese artist Takao Momiyama’s contemporary boro objects will also be shown among the 100 boro objects, a selection of patched and mended clothes from Swedish museum collections. The exhibition is designed by acclaimed Stockholm-based design and architecture studio TAF.