A Length of Kasuri Cotton with Zanshi Weft: Leftover Yarn

early twentieth century
68" x 13 1/2", 173 cm x 34 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 warp is regulated and the weft is fed with these random threads  producing an irregular horizontal 'striping'; if home threads are used, knotted slubs can often be seen.

In this case we see that kasuri is the basis for this zanshi ori and the four, white well crib images which occupy the central column of this design attest to this. The weft yarns are all left over so the dark background to the kasuri images is a random pattern of horizontal lines in several tones.

The cloth is slightly drapey in the hand and the effect of the random weft yarns against the fixed stripes and the white, woven images is stark and dramatic.

This is a visually interesting length of zanshi ori, a good one at that.