A Length of Zanshi Ori: Silk and Cotton

early twentieth century
55" x 13 1/2", 139.5 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 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 "leftover" yarns are silk yarns used to create the pale and multi-colored, horizontally placed wide bars that travel up the length of the cloth: the right-hand side, the warp, too, is of leftover silk.

The contrast of the dark, indigo cotton areas against the supple, slightly shimmering golden silk areas is beautiful.

A really lovely piece of hand weaving from old Japan.