A Panel from a Sakiori Kotatsugake: Cotton Warp and Weft

ca. mid twentieth century
56" x 13", 142 cm x 33 cm

This is a handsome length of sakiori, a kind of weaving that uses shredded cloth for its weft yarn; sakiori is the Japanese word for rag woven textiles.

The regularly set warp yarns are of white and orange colored cotton.  The weft is cotton rag and the variegated colors of the weft seem randomly fed against the warp, creating a lovely progression of color up the length of the cloth, with blackish, red and cream colored bars dominating the colored banding.

This wide, thickly woven and slubby cloth is beautiful in the hand and is also beautifully textured.

Note that the two short ends of the piece are unraveling a bit although, if handled sensibly, it should be stable. The loose weft yarns reveal that the weft in the unraveled area is a patterned cotton, possibly katazome. Really lovely. 

Most likely this sakiori panel is taken from a kotatsugake or hearth cover.