Motif

Japanese beliefs place nature at the very heart of their cults. For this reason, many temples and shrines are built on mountains or in forests in order to give thanks to their deities. From the small local shrines to the more important places of pilgrimage, there are probably as many places of worship across Japan as there are mountains and hills...

The pagoda represented here could just as easily belong to the Buddhist temple of Eikan-do temple as to the Shinto sanctuary of Kumano Nachi Taisha, or any other place of worship perched on top of a mountain in the middle of a forest ...

FABRIC

The silvery and frosted colours evoke the coldness of winter, but the pearly and purplish reflections appear in the daylight. In the last picture below, you can see how the fabric warms up in the light of a late afternoon.

This obi is also a jacquard fabric, woven with silk and silvery threads, and if you look at it carefully, especially on top of the purple mountains, you can observe metallic flakes. They are silver and iridescent foils applied on top of the fabric after the weaving is completed.