Hirosaki Kogin Institute Co., Ltd

Hirosaki Kogin Institute: the bulding designed by Kunio Maekawa (built in 1932) is a registered tangible cultural heritage site (photograph by the author). Hirosaki Kogin Institute: the bulding designed by Kunio Maekawa (built in 1932) is a registered tangible cultural heritage site (photograph by the author).

The Hirosaki Kogin Institute was established in 1942, initially with the name of Hirosaki Homespun LLC, as part of the NPO Kimura Industry Institute (est. 1932). It was set up to provide guidance and instructions to the newly developed local wool industry.

In the late 1940s, Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961), the founder of the Japanese Mingei (Folk Crafts) movement since the late 1920s, praised kogin zashi as one of the best local crafts and suggested that the firm should make a special effort to carry out research about kogin zashi and to preserve traditional examples of this craft. Yokoshima Naomichi, the president of the Hirosaki Homespun, and his wife started to collect kogin zashi clothes from the villages and documented the patterns by drawing the patterns on graphic paper and then stitching them. They recorded over 600 patterns. Other contributors were Mr Kazutomo Takahashi (1904-1983), who was associated with the Mingei movement, and his wife Hiroko. Their research was later published as Tsugaru Kogin (1974).

In 1962 the institute’s name was changed to the Hirosaki Kogin Institute, in order to focus on kogin studies and to promote local businesses by making and selling kogin zashi.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the institute continues its key position of promoting kogin zashi through new products designed to appeal to urban consumers. In 2013 the Institute published Tsugaru Kogin–Zashi, Technique and Patterns, which expands upon the 1974  book under the third president, Sadaharu Narita. 

1974 book under the third president Sadaharu Narita. He expanded its business and gave many workshops and organised exhibitions domestically and overseas, created many products in collaboration with other businesses such as department stores and fashion designers. In 1996 kogin-zashi was nationally designated as one of Japan's traditional crafts. He also published a book about kogin in 2013. His daughter Hiromi Chiba succeeded him as President his in 2023.

Sources:

NK (based on interview with Sadaharu Narita and Hiromi Chiba on 23 August and 26 October 2023)

Last modified on Friday, 27 October 2023 18:46