What’s That Thing? Part 7
Another week, another interesting question: Anonymous asked: “Geimei's Tumblr features a photo of Tomichie in a stunning black obi with a gorgeous motif with patterns in circles... could you please explain that pattern for us? Thank you!” Let’s start by looking at the image itself:
Image courtesy of Protieweng on Instagram. The motif itself is fairly straightforward and known as Marumon (丸紋), which translates directly to “Circle Motifs”; it simply means any motif that is rendered within a circle. This obi in particular has four major motifs within the circles that are repeated throughout with gorgeous embroidery (the price must have been a fortune!). To understand its meaning better let’s take a closer look at the four, starting with the butterflies in the top left of the obi (which repeats again towards the bottom left): Chō/Butterflies (蝶): I’ve spoken about the symbolism of butterflies before, but what makes these special is that the two butterflies facing each other also manage to create a circle in their own right, which adds a feeling of wholeness. Kiku/Chrysanthemums (菊): This motif also manages to make its own circle with the middle flower, so it’s also emulating the marumon feeling again. However, it also adds to this aesthetic by adding three chrysanthemums on side view and three sets of three leaves. It’s pretty obvious to see the use of the number three here, and this isn’t an accident, especially when looking at the next motif... Kikkō/Tortoiseshell (亀甲): I’ve also spoken about the symbolism surrounding kikkō in the past, but this part is where we really begin to see the hidden message in the obi. There were two butterflies, three chrysanthemums, and now four kikkō! There’s four whole sections and three partial sections, which links it back to the chrysanthemums. The twin sets of both leaves and side flowers that the chrysanthemums showed link it directly back to the two butterflies as well! Kiri/Paulownia (桐): You may be wondering why I chose to feature this last, even though it’s technically above the kikkō in the pattern; if you start with the butterflies, then move to the chrysanthemums, kikkō, and finally paulownia, you’ve gone around in a circle pattern, which is artfully hidden in this piece! Also, it’s important to note that Japanese writing is read from right to left, so following a circle in Japanese art leads us to go from right to left as well. As you may have guessed by now, the paulownia represents the number five, as it has three leaves and two main flowers. What’s even better is the final hidden meaning: There’s 14 paulownia buds, which is the number you get when you add 2 + 3 + 4 + 5. You may have also noticed that six colors are used throughout the obi as well: red, white, blue, purple, green, and gold. The paulownia leaves use two different shades of red though, so you could technically call it seven; this was likely added to give the paulownia an extra bit of dimension. So, each flower represents a number in sequence with the colors used to render them becoming the final number in the sequence overall ^^ Her kimono motifs can also be considered marumon as they are also motifs within circles (albeit without a border) so the combination is quite stunning and was clearly meant to be paired together.
