In the 17th year of Tensho (1589), Toyotomi Hideyoshio, the man of power at the time, officially permitted to open the houses of courtesans at Nijo-Yanagimachi in Kyoto.

The figure in the photo shows how a courtesan of those days looked.

The hair style called "karawa (=Chinese ring)" was handed down from Ming (=China) around the time.

She wears a "kosode (=short sleeves)" kimono in the "shimekiri (=shut end)" style and a "Nagoya-obi" belt which is a string made of "kumi-ito (=assebled threads)".

Nagoya is the Nagoya in Hizen, Kyushu island. (Hizen is the old name of a country which covered Saga Prefecture and Nagasaki Prefecture except Iki island and Tsushima island.)

Since the Chinese people made this belt in Nagoya, Hizen, it was called "Nagoya-obi (=belt).