'I never thought I'd be taking over my father's position. At first, I wasn't even interested in the tradition of the stitching," says Sadaharu Narita, president of crafts company Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo. "But now that I'm in that position, I feel grateful that I can seek out and produce new values for the craft."
Narita is talking about kogin, a type of sashiko stitching used to decorate hemp clothing that was traditionally worn by farmers in Aomori Prefecture to keep them warm in colder months. The stitching style, which was developed in Hirosaki around 220 years ago, not only allowed the clothing to sport motifs, but it also protected the fabric from being damaged. During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), after a railway line between Ueno and Aomori made it easier to transport yarn to the countryside, kogin became popular in the area.
Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo has been upholding the stitching tradition since 1960, now producing new items designed to compliment contemporary lifestyles. Since it was originally spontaneously sewn by farmers, kogin doesn't follow a particular design, but compositions of triangles and squares are particularly popular. Well liked for patterns that never seem to date, kogin is still used in modern fashion, with Narita even collaborating with fashion brand Y's by Yohji Yamamoto in 2014.