Japanese Fukuro Obi with Hexagonal Medallions

Black ground, hexagon panels, and enough tiny flowers to fill a small county.

This fukuro obi with hexagonal medallions is from Japan, and is ca. 1940. It is silk. A fukuro obi is a woven sash worn with a kimono, made as a bag-like tube of doubled cloth so that it is patterned on both faces. At a glance, a folded textile with a black ground divided into large hexagonal panels. Inside, red, navy, cream and metallic thread form medallions of flowers and star-like petals, with narrow bordered bands between. It is 12 inches wide and 166 long.

Maximalism, carefully tiled and not a single panel left idle.