A denim maker in Tohoku has developed a method to produce jeans from the hair of deer culled in Hokkaido.
The jeans made by Oikawa Denim in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, use hair from Yezo sika deer shot by Kunihide Iwamatsu, a hunter and dairy farmer in Hokkaido who wanted to put the animals' hides and hair to good use.
According to the Hokkaido prefectural government, Yezo sika deer were driven to the brink of extinction by overhunting, but their population has increased thanks to conservation policies and a decline in the number of hunters.