Japanese Wooden Clogs

A generic term for footwear made by making a hole in the base on which the foot rests, passing cloth (called a thong) through the hole, and placing it between the toes. Many are made of wood. The two platforms on the bottom part of the geta are called the 'teeth'. 

Traditional Japanese footwear can be roughly divided into two groups: zori sandals and geta wooden clogs. Clogs were originally called ashida (high clogs). In the late Muromachi era, ashida appeared in the Shichiju-ichi ban Shokunin Uta-awase (Seventy-one Round Poetry Competition). However, it wasn’t until the Edo era that clogs became more popular.

The Ukiyo-e paintings of the time depict how to remove snow from the ‘teeth’ of the clogs, and how to repair the cloth, called the hanao (strap), positioned between the big toe and second toe.

There are two types of clogs that have wooden stilts, or protrusions called teeth, at the base (renshi). There are also clogs with teeth made from other materials (sashiba). Geta craftsmen cut out the pair of wooden clogs from a single piece of wood, using their own saws called itobiki and kadobiki. With this method, the paulownia tree, which geta are made from, can be used without waste.

Geta have been developed in a variety of ways, depending on the period, the region, and the intended use. 'One tooth' geta, which are used when Shugenja (people who practice shugendo) walk up a mountain, and beautiful pokkuri worn by maiko (apprentice geisha) and oiran (courtesans) are also another styles of geta.

Geta, which were a part of everyday life, were also used in day-to-day ‘fortune telling’. A popular competition, geta uranai, in which clogs are kicked into the air, forecasting the following day’s weather according to which side they land on, is held every year in Fukuyama-shi in Hiroshima Prefecture.