New obi for furisode musubi playtime.

So I have begun playing with musubi that are normally tied for furisode at Coming of Age day.

However the obi I have at the moment are not suitable.

They are heavily woven with metallic thread which makes them perfect for a formal otaiko but rubbish for those fancy musubi.

So it was time to do a little bit of hunting.

I asked a friend what would be a good search term for these special obi and she recommended I search for "furisode obi" so off to the internet.

First stop Rakuten, and although I found what I was looking for, they were pretty expensive so I went back to my usual shopping channel eBay.

There is one seller who I thought would have what I wanted and sure enough I was lucky to find them.

Here is the one I chose.

Front

Underside

It is a pretty rainbow obi which should be okay with some of my more fancy kimono but it is very soft and flexible.  Perfect!

However while I was browsing, something caught my eye.

Front

Isn't it pretty!

Blank part of the fukuro obi

At first glance it looks like a standard fukuro obi but!!!

It is split into two at one end!

Underside 

 This is the underside of the obi but in between the split is this orange part.

How weird is this obi?  So of course I brought it and now I am thinking of musubi to tie with it.