A Length of Beautifully Colored Zanshi Ori: Leftover Yarn Weaving

early twentieth century
60" x 13 3/4", 152.5 cm x 35 cm

Zanshi ori is cloth that is woven from threads either leftover from home production of yarn making, or from broken threads that were purchased from local commercial weavers.  Usually the weft is fed with these random threads while generally the warp is regulated producing an irregular horizontal 'striping'; if home threads are used, knotted slubs can often be seen.

This length of zanshi ori cloth hits all the marks of all that you would want to see in zanshi ori--the nice, knotted slubs, the way that colored weft threads arbitrarily start and stop, the lovely shades of indigo and the lone mending patch whose stripes are a lovely foil to the background.

The hand of the cloth is drapey and supple and the weaving is exemplary.

This is a wonderful piece of zanshi ori cloth.