A Length of Dark Toned Zanshi Ori: Leftover Yarns

early twentieth century
63" x 13 3/4", 160 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 is a beautiful length of old zanshi ori that shows a classic trait of zanshi ori which is a randomly fed weft: the irregular, horizontal-based "stripes" are a testament to this and indicate that a wide variety of coffered yarns were knotted together to create one long filament, enough to weave a bolt of cloth.

The dark tone of this length is attractive and the weaving is tight and strong.