I recently acquired a Saganishiki loom. It appears to be old but I cannot find much information about where it came from. The woman in New York (an accomplished weaver, but not of Saganishiki) said she purchased it from a friend who bought it at an estate sale. The estate sale was for a woman, recently deceased, who collected unique looms. The box the loom came in was labeled "Obi Loom".

These were two of the warps that were included. One is gold and the other silver. They are packaged so that they are creased at the fold. One drawback with this is that the crease may show in the finished fabric. I don't know if this method is still used. If not, I wonder when it was stopped?

Today, the warp is left at full length, wrapped in stiff paper, then gently folded so that no crease is formed.

The knobs are interesting in that a round metal plate with protrusions is attached to the wooden disc. They fit into the holes in the metal plate. The knobs are used to advance the paper and then locked into place to prevent movement when weaving.

I have asked a fellow weaver in Japan and one in Texas if they know anything about this particular design. I believe it is important to identify the origin of a loom: made in USA or Japan. If Japan, what Prefecture. So much information about Saganishiki is unavailable in the US due to language barriers, lack of published weaving information in Japan, and limited number of people who do this type of weaving.