A Length of Beautifully Patched Zanshi ori Cotton: Leftover Yarn Weaving

early twentieth century
55" x 13 1/4", 139.5 cm x 33.5 cm

This beautifully presented boro length bears around a dozen hand stitched patches which are affixed to a base of indigo dyed cotton zanshi ori.

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.

In this case the cloth is configured as a kind of plaid with the warp yarns arranged in a random pattern, a classic and beautiful feature of zanshi ori cloth.

The patches are bold and, especially, the diagonally oriented one at the top add richness and flavor to an already interesting length of old cotton.

Wonderful.