man’s formal divided shirt(Hekoobi)
Obi for casual use for men and children. It is a wide belt made of soft material and easy to tie. It originated in the Satsuma domain (today’s Kagoshima Prefecture) during the Edo period. In the clan, the shigotsu obi used by young men of the clan (aged 15 to 25), called hyōji, was called a “hyōji obi. This belt spread to Tokyo and then to the rest of the country with the Meiji Restoration. The characteristic of the hyogo obi is that it is not constrictive and can be tied in a variety of ways. Recently, because of this feature, women have begun to use it as a yukata obi as well, and the number of materials and designs has increased dramatically.
