Antique Women's Teal Blue Silk Nagoya Obi

An antique silk Nagoya obi from the 1930s–40s, featuring an elaborate woven design of Kaioke (shell boxes), clam shells and decorative fans against a rich teal blue background.

The kaioke motif, hexagonal containers once used in the Heian-period court game Kai-awase (shell matching), symbolises eternal bonds and harmonious partnership. In the game, players would search for matching pairs of clam shells, only true pairs would fit together, representing an ideal match.

This type of obi has a full-width section for the back and a half-width folded section for the waist. The plain half-width section shows some marks (as seen in the last photo), but overall, it is in good pre-loved condition and still suitable for wear.

Material: silk

Width: 32 cm

Length: 343 cm (113 cm full-width section, 230 cm half-folded section)