Humankind and leather have a long history, and people have been using leather for about 2 million years . Since they lived by hunting, they used the skins of animals obtained by hunting to protect themselves from the cold and shocks.
It can be said that it is natural in history that"tanning technology"to turn hide into"leather"has been developed.
If you leave the animal skin as it is, it will harden and rot . To prevent this, drying, kneading, and beating were performed, and in order to soften the leather, oil tanning was developed, which is thought to be the oldest tanning technique of mankind. I'm here .
As time passed, techniques such as"smoke tanning", which is hung near the hearth in Japan, and"vegetable tanning", which was discovered to prevent the skin from rotting when soaked in plant sap, were born.
Processed leather has been used not only for clothing, but also for bedding, weapons, saddles, etc. A rare example would be an ancient Egyptian record sheet. This is made from dried goat skin, and is extremely durable.
In the latter half of the 19th century, chemical tanning techniques were developed. That is"chrome tanning" . Unlike conventional tanning work, it takes less time and is more economical, making it possible to mass-produce leather. As a result, the demand for leather increased.
The leather products you are using now have such a history. If you are interested, please dig deeper into the history.