Hirosaki's Tsugaru kogin sashimi specialty store "Tsugaru Kobosha" (Motoji-cho, Hirosaki City) began selling "Original Tsugaru Kogin Sashi Azabu" on December 16th.

The same fabric made of hemp for Tsugaru kogin sashimi. Tsugaru kogin sashimi is a traditional sashiko technique that has been handed down in the Tsugaru region, which was born with limited resources and social constraints. There are various vertically-oriented modco (basic patterns) depending on the aesthetics and ingenuity of the farmers.

Minako Hikima, the owner of the Tsugaru Kobo Co., Ltd., said, “Tsugaru kogin sashimi was born because it is Azabu, but the cloth that is generally distributed is a congress cloth. Azabu was sold at some stores until now, but the production amount It was getting harder and harder to get."

Since the congress is a material for embroidery and has the same number of warp threads and weft threads, it becomes a square, so "an older person had a feeling that the rhombus of the saw was a square shape." Said Hikima. “I have heard from customers for Azabu for a long time, and I also wanted to stab it with Azabu. Above all, I thought that I should start from the local area to protect the traditional Tsugaru kogin sashimi,” he said.

Preparations started around last fall. Even when I contacted the manufacturer, they did not know about Tsugaru Kogin Sashi and sometimes did not hold it. “I found out that not only my ignorance but that Azabu is hard to come by. I finally found a trader in the Kinki region. I felt sympathy for the desire to preserve the tradition,” he recalls.

It is said that he was careful about the number of warp and weft threads in the fabric and made adjustments. Mr. Hikima says that experienced people actually stabbed the sample linen cloth and used the collected voice for improvement. He showed his confidence that he was able to create a satisfying cloth by making some efforts such as gluing so that it would be easier to stab.

The price is 10 cm wide == 715 yen (125 cm long). When I started selling it, there was a reaction more than I expected, and some people ordered from Okinawa and bought 10 meters. At present, online sales are suspended, and only Tsugaru Kobosha and Shimaya (Momoishicho, TEL 0172-32-6046) sell only over the counter. Online resale is scheduled for early February next year.

“I'm glad that everyone who stabs kogin is pleased,” says Hikima. “We are currently only producing colors, and we are planning to develop 4 to 5 colors in the future. We plan to support wholesale as well. If we continue to develop by leaving the tradition of Tsugaru kogin sashimi,” he said.