A Length of Pieced Zanshi ori: Beautifully Colored in Indigo

late nineteenth, early twentieth century
36 1/2" x 12", 93 cm x 30.5 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 is beautifully subtle in color, tone and design. There is no attempt to create a fancy stripe or check, instead what we have is a dull indigo field of randomly placed, horizontal-based stripes, the result of leftover yarns feeding against an indigo dyed warp.

The cloth is hand stitched from two pieces and there are two long patches affixed to the bottom, right hand side. The cloth is missing its selvedge and the overall condition is used and old.

This is a beautiful length of zanshi ori and one with great age and rich soul.