A Length of Zanshi ori: Mainly Striped Leftover Yarn Weaving
early twentieth century
58 1/2" x 13 1/4", 148 cm x 33.65 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--the back of this piece shows a fair number of these knotted slubs.
This piece is interesting because on the top and in the middle we see evidence of leftover yarns. This means this section of the bolt woven from leftover yarns shows little of them: we can imagine that other lengths cut from this bolt will show more leftover yarns than this one.
As in most zanshi ori the warp is fixed and is usually a stripe like this one. The colors are saturated, a rich blue and an almost-black. The cloth is hand woven.
Simple, elegant and with some surprises this is a curious length of old cloth.