「我原本想成為一名畫家，但我覺得繪畫不適合我，因為我的情感太容易透過畫筆流露出來，太直接。當我在尋找出口時，我的女兒用我母親去世時留下的布料剪裁、縫製，並刺繡了一個錢包，這些布料從前對我來說是珍貴得無法做任何東西的。她做這件事的唯一目的就是讓我開心，當我看到女兒的刺繡時，我很妒忌她能夠如此坦率地創作。」
那時沖潤子（Junko Oki ）還在做產品策劃的工作，她每天只想著什麼會流行？什麼是獨特的？什麼會暢銷？但當她和女兒一起時，便意識到創作其實可以這樣簡單地達成。
「在那之前我根本沒有接觸過針黹，甚至不喜歡它。我自覺不靈活，即使努力也做不好，但我發現透過我自己的方式做一些我不喜歡的事情，賦予了我巨大的自由。我是一個過度追求，或者可説是一個必須有答案的人，我在針黹中卻擺脫了這一點。我認為每個人內心都有一顆種子，鼓勵他們無視規則。但隨著學校教育的發展，他們在某種程度上受到了束縛，我認為針黹是擺脫這種束縛的一種方式。」
“I originally wanted to become a painter, but I decided that painting was not for me because my emotions were too easily revealed through the paintbrush and it was too direct. While I was searching for the outlet which suited me most, my daughter cut up, sewed together, and embroidered on a purse out of fabrics that my mother had left behind when she passed away and had previously been too precious for me to do anything with. She made this with the singular intention of making me happy. When I saw my daughter’s embroidery, I felt a sense of jealousy that she was able to create something so candid.”
At the time, Junko Oki was working on product planning, so she kept thinking about what would be popular, what was unique, what would sell. But she realized with her daughter that creation can be as simple as what she had accomplished.
“Until then I was not involved with needlework at all, I even disliked it. I cannot be nimble, so I cannot do it well even if I try. I felt that an immense freedom was bestowed on me by doing something I didn’t like, but in my own way. Usually I am an overachiever, or someone who has to have an answer, but in my stitching I am freed from this. I think that everyone has a seed inside them, encouraging them to ignore the rules. But with education and schooling, they have been bound in some way. I think needlework is a way to break free of that.”
沖潤子住在鎌倉山間一棟有70年歷史的老房子裡，四圍都是鳥類和動物。在花園裡，她用紙板搭建了小屋，放了些食物，讓流浪貓有地方棲身，附近還有浣熊、狸貓和果子狸。這些動物和平共處，彼此保持一定距離。
「我會把前門一直開著，這樣貓咪就可以隨意出入，這也促成了我的夜間生活方式。我會根據夜間聽到的鳥鳴聲來感受季節的變化。現在對我來說離開這個環境是不可想像的。」
Junko lives in a 70-year-old home amongst the hills of Kamakura, surrounded by birds and animals. In the garden, she puts shelters made from cardboard so that stray cats have a place to stay, and she gives them food to eat. In the neighborhood, there are not only cats but also raccoons, tanuki, and masked palm civets. These animals coexist peacefully and with a good distance from each other.
“I kept the front door open so that the cats can come and go as they please, so this contributed to my own nocturnal lifestyle. I work in the hours of the night, feeling the changes of the seasons according to the birdsong I can hear at night. It is inconceivable now for me to move away from this environment.”
2020年春天，沖潤子從派傳單和社交平台收集了七千多個舊線軸，來為山口縣立萩美術館 •萩浦上博物館的展覽創作，並把部分鋪滿在茶室地上。
「這是剛到東京獨自生活時母親給我帶來的」、「這是以製作日本服飾維生的丈夫母親所留下來的」，捐贈舊線軸的人們寫上。沖潤子憶述：「有的人送了一百個線軸，有的人只送了三個，還有的人附上信件給我，每個線軸都有自己的故事，並一一嵌入物件當中，創造成說不出口的話語。」
In the spring of 2020, Junko Oki gathered over 7,000 used thread spools from flyer distributions and social media. She then used these spools to create an art installation for an exhibition at the Hagi Uragami Museum, laying them out to cover the floor of the tea room.
“This is what my mother brought me when I first moved to Tokyo to live on my own”, “And this is from my mother-in-law who made a living sewing Japanese clothing.” Writing from the people who donated the spools of thread. Junko recalled, “There were people who sent in as many as a hundred spools, and people who just sent in three, as well as people who also sent me an accompanying letter. Each spool of thread came with its own story and embedded in each of these objects that created unsaid words.”
在尋找布料時，一位古董商朋友發現了沖潤子使用的物料，於是教路：「如果你立即問他們有沒有boro，他們很可能會說沒有，因為這是貧窮的象徵。但如果你能和他們在人性化的層面上建立聯繫，他們可能會為你泡泡茶，慢慢訴說他們的生活故事，並向你展示他們所擁有的東西。」
曾幾何時，布料是很珍貴的，即使是工作服，即使有破洞，他們也會不停地修補，一塊布能包裹三粒米，便足以令他們不捨得丟掉，他們會將這些布碎拼湊起來，這就是 boro的誕生。
他們並沒有試圖製作什麼特定的東西，正因這種謹慎的生活態度，現在我們才有幸將它們用作美麗的東西。
In terms of looking for fabric, an antique dealer acquaintance who finds many of the pieces Junko uses shared that, “if you immediately ask whether they have boro, most likely they will say that they don’t have any, because it is a symbol of poverty. But if you can strike a conversation with them and connect with them on a human level, they might offer you tea, and start to reveal their life story, and show you what they have.”
Back in the day, fabric was so valuable, even if they were working clothes and even if there were holes they would keep repairing. They had such little resources that if a cloth could wrap 3 pieces of rice they couldn’t bear to throw it away. They would piece these together and this was how boro was born.
“They weren’t trying to make a specific thing, and it remains something that they would like to hide, but now we have the privilege of using these as something beautiful. I think it is important to keep in mind that these discreet lives are the reason why these items exist.”
在幾乎聽不到他們在說什麼的收音機聲音，或是無伴奏弦樂中，沖潤子獨自在屋子裡工作，一縫就是數個月，享受著當中的扭曲、抽搐和纏結。
「我想將不同的時間縫合在一起，並將自己融入其中，不一定是要把過去和現在聯繫起來，但隨著我母親的去世，事情就是這樣發展，這也是我開始這樣做的原因之一。 材料不必很舊，也許是去年的東西。有時，當我想起一件現有的作品時，我會把它剪下來並與另一件作品結合起來，同時我也在拼湊出我自己的年表。」
Amid the faint background of the radio or unaccompanied string music, Junko Oki would work alone in her studio for months on end, reveling in the twisted, twitching, and tangled process.
“I want to stitch different times together and to mix myself into them. I don’t necessarily want to string up the past and present, but that was how things developed with the passing of my mother being part of the reason I began this practice. The material doesn’t have to be very old, perhaps it can be something from last year. Sometimes when an existing work comes back to me I will cut it up and join it with a different piece, and I am piecing together my own chronologies as well.”
