A Length of 19th Century Cotton Boro: Waterfall Stripes

ca. late nineteenth century
69" x 13", 175 cm x 33 cm

This is a very interesting length of old, indigo dyed cotton cloth.

First because it is a variant of zanshi-ori which is cloth woven from leftover yarns.  We can see evidence of this in the deep colored areas of the cloth which show white, vertically-oriented flecks: these flecks are due to kasuri yarns that have been used as part of the warp.

Another interesting thing is the nature of the stripes: the graded stripes were used quite often in nineteenth century weaving, and they are said to resemble a waterfall--a lovely thought to ponder to ponder.

The bold, large patches, three of them, cover almost half of the length of cotton.  The kasuri cloth on the left of the cloth are two large pieces which are hand stitched to the base and overlap.

All in all, this is a very good looking boro piece with an excellent base cloth of old, Japanese cotton.

Recommended.