A Length of Zanshi ori: Accidental Almost Patterns

mid twentieth century
36" x 12 3/4", 91.5 cm x 32.5 cm

Zanshi ori is cloth woven from threads that are 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 warp yarns here are configured to create a striped kasuri effect and they are done in indigo, white and brown colors.

The weft yarns seems to be consistently of leftover kasuri yarns that show intermittent white blips or dashes over the entire surface of the cloth with some areas show an almost-emerging image or woven motif.

Zanshi ori cloth is a wonderful example of frugality and ingenuity and lessons can be learned from it on how to use waste material in a beautiful, inventive and useful way.