A Rare and Beautiful Length of Woven Paper Cloth: Bast Warp and Intermittent Weft

early twentieth century
40" x 18 1/2", 101.5 cm x 47 cm

What a rare find, what an unusual textile. It is said to be from Yamagata prefecture which makes sense as there we find a good source of handmade paper and, at times, cloth woven from paper yarns, such as this one.

What makes this length so absolutely unusual and fascinating is that the paper yarn weft is woven against a bast fiber warp.

There also are intermittent sections of the weft that are woven with bast fiber yarn, too, and from looking at these we can see that the bast yarns are hand plied, which is exactly what you would hope to see on a country textile.

Some of the bast yarns are dyed bluish and purplish, which increases the level of interest and rarity.

Because the length is mainly of paper yarn it is lightweight, more so than cotton cloth would be. This is a distinctive feature of shifu or woven paper cloth.

The top and the bottom edges each are hand finished, and because of its unusual width, the intended purpose of the subtle but profoundly interesting cloth is not known.

This is a stunningly good folk textile, super desirable for not just its paper weft but more so because a bast warp was used to weave it.

Very recommended.