Japanese Fukuro Obi with Bamboo Motif

Slim leaves glint across a rust-orange ground, as if sunrise snagged on them.

This silk fukuro obi with a bamboo motif is from Japan, and is ca. 1940. A fukuro obi is a formal woven sash worn with a kimono, usually patterned on the front side and often made of silk in a double-width weave. Up close, a long folded textile in burnt orange with broad vertical bands in deeper rust. Metallic stalks and spiky leaves sweep diagonally across the upper part in pale shining thread. The fold at the bottom reveals the reverse of the pattern. It is 12 inches wide and 163 long.

Elegant enough to make plain stalks feel underdressed.