Sash(black kimino version)

A woman in a black kimono ties her sash, the dark fabric providing a dramatic ground for the composition. The November 1929 date places this in Kotondo's final sustained period of bijin-ga production. The sash (obi) was among the most elaborate elements of traditional women's dress — its tying a skilled procedure that required practice and patience — and Kotondo renders the act with the attentiveness he brought to all feminine gestures, finding in the mundane ritual a moment of particular concentrated form.