The Complete Handbook of Obis

I bought this looking for a deeper technical understanding of obi beyond the usual 'this one is formal, that one is casual' blog posts. The construction details and interlining explanations genuinely taught me things I hadn't found elsewhere, even after a decade of collecting. That said, the tone is so dry it reads like a technical manual for a plumbing fixture at times. I also wish the knotting chapter had more diagrams — text descriptions of the otaiko knot are workable but slow. Solid reference, but not a joy to read.

I run a small vintage kimono shop and this has become the book I hand to new staff during their first week. The chapter on evaluating used obi alone — how to check for interlining breakdown, how to inspect the weave under tension — saved me from making two bad purchases within a month of reading it. The business chapter is also genuinely useful; it doesn't just say 'there's a market,' it walks through the actual math of a rental rotation. I've bought copies for my two part-time employees.

As a costume designer for stage productions, I need to understand how an obi behaves on the body, not just what it looks like in a catalog. This book gave me the structural logic I needed: why a fukuro obi drapes differently from a nagoya, how the interlining affects tie security, and what length I need for a given actor's torso. The maintenance chapter saved a rental deposit on a period piece. It's the first English-language reference on obi that actually answers my professional questions.

The content is accurate and well-organized — I used it to verify a vintage maru obi I purchased on Yahoo Auctions and it helped me spot that the piece was re-dyed. But I was disappointed in the consumer-side emphasis. For someone who just wears kimono occasionally, like me, a lot of the book is aimed at dealers and restorers. I wanted more about how to choose a seasonal obi for a wedding, and less about the profit margins of rental shops. It is what it says it is, but I felt the target audience was narrower than the title implies.

Solid, practical reference. The chapter on choosing the right obi for specific body types was particularly helpful — I'm tall with a long torso and my otaiko always rides up, and the book explained the length-to-height ratios that cause this. It's not flashy, but it's clearly written by someone who deeply understands textile construction and the Japanese market. A couple of the business anecdotes in chapter 6 are a bit thin, but as a reference manual it's exactly what I needed. Minor point: an index would have made it better.

I've got a background in textiles, so I appreciated the technical depth on weaves like rinzu and shusu. The glossary is also genuinely useful for cross-referencing Japanese terms I see in auction listings. My gripe is that the book sometimes reads like a translated JIS standard — precise but with zero warmth, and the lack of photographic examples hurts in places where you're comparing subtle textile quality differences. The chapter on repair shops and conservation resources skims over the actual practical steps of getting a damaged obi professionally restored. If you're competent with textiles and want the facts, it's great. If you need more hand-holding, look elsewhere.

I'm just starting a small obi rental side business, and this book gave me the vocabulary and standards I needed to talk to wholesale dealers in Japan. The chapter on supplier positioning — who makes true bespoke versus who is selling machine-woven tourist-grade — saved me from wasting money twice. The four-star content would be five if the author had included a recommended checklist of inventory to stock for a rental operation. Still, I've read it twice, and the second read was more useful than the first. Recommended for anyone serious about treating obi as a product category rather than a fashion accessory.