Vintage silk, new life.
Vintage Japanese obi, the silk sashes worn over kimono, found by hand in Japan and chosen to live again as table runners, wall hangings and textile art. Every piece is one of one: when it sells, that exact obi is gone.
Ships worldwide from Tokyo with a tracking number · Secure checkout through Etsy · 30-day returns · Every defect disclosed. Shipping & customs
Recent pieces
Each obi is graded by fabric, era and condition, and any defect is disclosed in the listing.
Every obi is one of one, so the shop changes as pieces sell. See what is available now on Etsy.
Found by hand in Japan
Every KINU obi is chosen by Amal, who lives in Tokyo and handles every one herself. She sources at the Oedo Antique Market, in the recycle shops of Nishi-Ogikubo and on Yahoo Auctions Japan, and from a house in Tomi, in the Nagano countryside, where estate clear-outs turn up early Showa pieces that never reach Tokyo dealers.
Two ways to take an obi home
Every obi in the shop comes with a choice of finish.
Buy vintage with confidence
Silk checked
We check the fibre, examine the metallic thread and the reverse of the weave, and look for hidden staining under the folds.
Dated honestly
No invented provenance. We assign the widest era range the evidence supports and say so in the listing.
Nothing hidden
Condition is graded and every defect is disclosed in the listing.
Shipped rolled
Every piece goes out rolled rather than folded, declared at the price paid. Shipping & customs
From the journal
Notes on telling silk from polyester, what the motifs mean and how to use a hundred-year-old sash at home.
- How to Date a Vintage Obi: Meiji, Taisho, Showa and What You Can Actually Tell
How to date a vintage obi from the cloth itself — fibre, weave, metallic thread, construction and motif — and why most sellers who name an era are guessing.
- Fukuro Obi, Nagoya Obi, Hanhaba Obi: Telling the Three Apart
What a fukuro obi is, how it differs from a nagoya and a hanhaba obi, and why the type you are buying decides the length, the formality and the price of a vintage obi.
- How to Clean a Vintage Silk Obi: Spot Cleaning, Light and Storage
How to clean a vintage silk obi without ruining it: why spot cleaning is the only safe wash, what sunlight does to silk and metallic thread, and how to store an obi rolled.