open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/99327

Cultural and Social Significance of the Uilta Embroidered Product “Sara-shiki” : From the Perspective of Material Culture, Part I : Sakhalin

日本語

2026-03-25

Center for Northern Humanities, Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University

Journal of the Center for Northern Humanities

19

35-47

13

This paper focuses on the embroidered product known as “Sara-shiki” (a type of embroidered table mat), produced by the Uilta, an Indigenous minority group in Sakhalin. It examines its origins and development from the perspectives of material culture and colonial policy. “Sara-shiki” did not originally exist among the traditional household items of the Uilta. It was newly created as part of vocational education at the Shisuka Education Center, established in 1930 in Otasu no Mori, a settlement where Uilta people were concentrated. Embroidery techniques that had been previously applied to clothing, footwear, and tableware were adapted for the production of “Sara-shiki”. At the same time, paper stencils were developed from birch-bark cutouts used to decorate everyday objects. “Sara-shiki” was later promoted as a tourist souvenir and came to be produced not only by schoolchildren but also by local Uilta women. Japanese colonial officials, educators, researchers, and tourists highly valued embroidered products such as “Sara-shiki”, yet at the same time made strongly discriminatory remarks about Uilta lifeways and character. In this sense, only the embroidery techniques were praised, and “Sara-shiki” as a new form of material culture was institutionally encouraged. This paper clarifies how “Sara-shiki” was shaped by Japanese demand and institutional frameworks. It highlights the political mechanism by which culturally specific skills and practices were selectively identified and promoted as “usable” within a colonial context.

紀要論文

Version of Record

2760-6236