Zokins have been used for centuries in Japanese homes, temples, and schools to hand clean wooden floors and tatami mats. Zokins were made from layered pieces of old fabric held together with sashiko stitching. They were boro patched regularly as holes appeared, reused again and again.
India’s Gujarat state is home to the Maldhari tribespeople, semi-nomadic herders who spend eight months of the year criss-crossing sparse pasturelands with their sheep, goats, cows, buffalo, and camels in a quest for fodder.