An Indigo Cotton and Raw Silk Zanshi Panel: Leftover Yarn

late nineteenth century
67" x 12 1/2", 170 cm x 32 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 piece of zanshi ori is beautifully subtle: there are narrow, warp-based white lines and subtle, weft-based white lines which appear in random order as they make their way up the piece. Because zanshi ori cloth is woven from leftover threads, sometimes different materials are used as in this case: the white weft yarns are silk yarns which give a kind of luster to the length.

One patch of kasuri cotton is applied to the length.

A subtle and elegant hand woven cloth from old Japan.