京都祇園 玉木静子

About this photo

She has her back to the camera and looks over her shoulder. Her large tied obi is covered with linked hexagons, each holding a pattern such as a flower. Large flowers are scattered over her kimono too, and in her hair she wears kanzashi with dangling ornaments. The name under the photo reads "Kyoto Gion, Tamaki Shizuko," and the photo is in the album Kyoto Osaka Imayo Bijin Fuzoku (Beauties of Today in Kyoto and Osaka, 1903).

This pattern of linked hexagons is called kikko. It is modeled on a tortoise's shell and has long been seen as a lucky pattern that carries a wish for long life. Examples appear among the Nara-period treasures of the Shosoin, and later came versions with flowers or cranes inside the hexagons, such as karahana kikko (Chinese flowers in tortoiseshell) and kikko ni tsuru (cranes in tortoiseshell).

Glossary