Spring heaven

Motif

Japanese obi are rarely wider than 33cm, therefore, artisans who create them skilfully decorate them without making their prints too busy. One of the methods commonly used is to leave « empty » spaces in order to create a harmonious balance. We can also see this method applied to other forms of Japanese arts, like the traditional ink painting Sumi-e, usually made on long narrow paper sheets.

On this obi, the motifs represent various elements of nature arranged together on an emerald blue background: parasol pine tree, river stream, lilies, hydrangeas and many more flowers. This kind of layout is common amongst obi designs, especially when depicting natural elements: the main motifs are arranged on a seemingly plain background, cleverly combined with cloud-shaped frames, which appear more or less depending on the light. In ancient times, all motifs carried strong meanings, and even if they tend to lose their symbols nowadays and are mostly used for their beauty, a certain idea survive in all of them. For example, these long clouds represented here are referred to as haze, in Japanese kasumi 霞. It is used in painting as a method to show perspective, time fluttering, and scene change, as the passage from one season to another.

With the importance of watery tones and the presence of Hydrangeas, we can imagine this scene represents the wet rainy season to come, at the end of Spring, towards June.

TEXTILE

This obi is woven jacquard silk and lamé gold threads. Due to its high quality, the details of the pattern are very sharp and textured.