帯留め
An obidome is an ornament worn on the obijime cord around a kimono sash. In a common threaded construction, the decorated face sits at the front of the waist while a fitting on the back carries the cord. The sash, its cord and the ornament are separate parts.
The reverse fitting explains how the ornament attaches.
A narrow sanbu-himo cord is common, but the fitting determines what fits.
In older writing, obidome can refer to a securing cord rather than today’s ornament.
The obi is the broad sash; the obijime is the narrower cord worn around it, and the obidome is the ornament on that cord. The broad obi arrangement at the back differs from the small knot tied in the cord itself. In the common modern threaded arrangement, the tied cord secures the sash while the ornament is displayed at the front; the ornament does not join the cord’s two ends.
A threaded obidome has a reverse fitting through which the cord passes, allowing the ornament to slide into position. One maker’s lotus-root ornament has a pewter face and brass fitting, showing how decoration and attachment can use different materials.
The lotus-root and rose ornaments are different objects, each documented by its own reverse photograph.
In a Kyoto retailer’s 2019 demonstration, a purple cord first passes through a rose ornament’s reverse loops, wraps around the waist and is tied in a reef knot at the front. After the ends are gathered, one hand holds the ornament forward while the other slides the cord, moving its small knot around the side and into the taiko obi arrangement at the back. The cord and its knot move while the rose stays forward, ready to be centered. The white clip and auxiliary cord are temporary dressing aids. Cord width must fit the passage; the label sanbu-himo does not guarantee compatibility.
Photographs follow Kimonomachi’s 2019 demonstration. The sequence explains this threaded set, rather than a universal tying method for all fittings.
Shibuichi is a copper–silver alloy, while shakudō is a copper–gold alloy used in Japanese metalwork. Pewter, used for the maker’s lotus-root ornament, is tin-based; brass combines copper and zinc. A decorative face and its attachment can use different metals. Alloy composition and surface treatment also affect appearance, so a gold-colored surface does not establish a solid-gold object.
| Name | Principal constituents |
|---|---|
| Shibuichi | Copper and silver |
| Shakudō | Copper and gold |
| Pewter | Primarily tin |
| Brass | Copper and zinc |
Maki-e names a decorative technique rather than a metal. A design is drawn in lacquer, metal powder such as gold or silver is sprinkled onto it, and further lacquering and polishing depend on the technique. Material descriptions such as silver or gemstones and a technique such as maki-e answer different questions: what is used, and how the surface is decorated.
Katsura Takeshi, also known as Katsura Morihito, made Tonosama-gaeru obidome kanagu in 2011. Shibuichi, shakudō and gold contribute to the frog’s form and patterns. The Culture Agency records high-relief repoussé from a shibuichi sheet about two millimeters thick, alongside flat and layered inlay and a separately attached shakudō back plate. Starting sheet thickness, shaping, surface decoration and the rear attachment describe different parts of its construction.
Repoussé raises areas of metal sheet through tool work, changing its shape. This frog starts from a sheet about two millimeters thick, rather than being cast as a solid frog-shaped block. The official craft record shows a flatter outline developing raised leg and back forms before the edges are refined. The depth of the finished relief is not the thickness of the starting sheet.
Frames at 135, 225 and 315 seconds in the cultural-agency film show a traced sheet developing into a raised frog form.
Flat inlay introduces another metal into a surface to form a pattern. For this frog, the Culture Agency describes shakudō flat inlay followed by gold flat inlay, creating layers, with a silver-foil technique identified as keshi-zōgan at the throat. These surface details differ from raising the body by repoussé. A shakudō plate is riveted to the back and carries a water pattern executed in gold keshi-zōgan. Riveting joins the plate, while inlay forms the pattern: attachment and decoration involve different operations.
In late Edo, obidome could mean a cord tightened over the tied obi to prevent loosening or slipping, rather than today’s small front ornament. Studying prints and older texts, Fukuda Hiromi distinguishes fabric ties, tubular sewn cords, braided cords and cords with metal fittings. Today’s obijime continues the securing-cord function, while the decorative obidome relates to the metal-fitting branch. The older word covered a broader set of objects.
Fukuda identifies two pathways in particular prints. In one, a pillow-like support is enclosed in a fabric tie; its position moves toward the obi’s upper edge while another cord secures the obi, linking the pillow-bearing cloth with the development of obiage. In another, sewn or braided cords attach to a pillow, and the pillow and securing-cord functions later separate. These distinguish support, covering cloth and securing cord within the scholar’s interpretation of selected prints, not an observed event in which one cord was cut in two.
Functional distinctions follow Fukuda’s study of selected images, not a single witnessed disassembly.
Some decorative obidome reused sword-hilt ornaments or the front fittings of tobacco pouches. An exhibition at Kakegawa Ninomaru Museum of Art connects these small ornaments with Edo metalworking techniques.
The Fukushoku Bunka Kenkyūkai describes jeweled and maki-e obidome becoming popular in Meiji. Makers continue to produce ornaments fitted for obi cords, using metalwork, stones and lacquer for different surfaces and textures.
Takasu Natsuko distinguishes four connections. In the pachin type, metal fittings on the two cord ends engage through protruding parts; in the hook type, one end fitting is a hook. In the cord-and-hook type, the cord passes behind the ornament while fittings at the cord ends supply the closure. In the cord-only type, those end hooks subsequently disappear and the ornament no longer closes the cord. Late-Meiji advertisements still show the first two types. Threaded ornaments appear by late Taishō, initially retaining hooks at the cord ends; those hooks disappear later, without a single disappearance year established by this source. The categories trace the separation of closure from decoration, not four universal back-fitting shapes.
HO diagrams of minimal connections, not reconstructions of particular historical fittings, teeth or springs. Passage forms are not universally modern double loops. Left and right locate the diagram’s parts, not positions around a wearer’s waist.
A National Institutes for Cultural Heritage record describes ornaments bought mainly during Taishō by a Wakayama merchant household, including precious metals and stones, some retaining Osaka shop boxes. They document purchases and preservation within one household.
Taishō dates the main purchases in this collection, rather than every object’s manufacture or nationwide use.
Mikimoto exhibited Yaguruma at the Paris exhibition in 1937. Its configuration chart shows the pearl side panels as separate clip brooches and the central radiating disc as an obidome; assembled, they also form a broad brooch-and-obidome. A museum curator explains that screws, a dedicated screwdriver and identifying marks support rearrangement. Components and wearing arrangements change, rather than merely giving one unchanged face several names. The maker dates its return to Japan through a New York auction to 1989. The work is a concrete convertible example preceding the postwar application trend.
Exhibited in 1937. The page follows the maker’s 1989 return date; a curator interview gives 1987, a discrepancy between sources.
An Agency for Cultural Affairs report describes a gradual postwar shift toward Western clothing, with kimono still worn in everyday life during the 1950s. In 1965–1974, an expanding supply of inexpensive ready-made Western clothes reduced demand for everyday kimono, while demand for festive kimono for coming-of-age celebrations, New Year and weddings increased.
Dress historian Takasu Natsuko identifies more designs serving as both obidome and brooches or pendant tops in Shōwa-period applications, particularly after the war, including designs working in the reverse direction. She links this trend to demand for ornaments usable with everyday Western clothing as well as kimono. The convertible Yaguruma of 1937 predates that postwar trend; the applications do not establish a first invention.
The 1937 Yaguruma already had convertible uses; the postwar trend is not their first invention.
The National Crafts Museum holds an obidome made by Hishida Yasuhiko in 1963, using silver, gilding and amethyst. It provides a specific example of postwar production. The collection record’s fiscal year 2018 refers to its donation, rather than the date it was made.
A 2023 discussion at KIMONO MODERN’s Tokyo supporters’ club records different approaches: choosing an obidome after the clothes, or starting an outfit with the ornament. The discussion suggested adapting brooches and hair accessories, and recorded participants’ experiences of using theatre or museum merchandise as obidome, wearing two ornaments, and making their own. A separate 2023 museum-outing column features a mother-of-pearl obidome with a yukata outfit. These accounts place the accessory in specific contemporary leisure and personal styling practices.
The obi is the broad sash, the obijime the cord around it, and the obidome an ornament carried on that cord.
The attachment is on the reverse. The threaded example carries the obi cord through rear loops; the lotus-root face and its brass rear fitting also perform different jobs, which the front alone cannot establish.
No. In late-Edo sources it can also name the securing cord, so its date and construction matter.
One ornament can combine a raised metal body, several inlay materials and a separately fitted back. Its material and techniques need to be described together.
More designs usable both as obidome and as brooches or pendant tops, including ornaments adapted in the reverse direction. Convertible examples already existed before the war, including Yaguruma in 1937.
One hand holds the ornament while the other slides the cord. The small knot moves into the rear taiko arrangement and the ornament is centered at the front.
The cord-only ornament no longer joins the cord ends; earlier ornamental fittings could also perform that closure.
No. Its components are rearranged, for example pearl panels as clip brooches and the central disc as an obidome, or combined as a broad ornament.
HO illustrations explain generic positions and connections. Named source diagrams are retained without reconstructing the frog’s hidden backplate. Wearing photographs follow Kimonomachi’s 2019 tutorial, retaining the visible white temporary cord.