Gyoda Tabi
Why Do We Wear Tabi? The Answer Is…

Date：31, Mar, 2016
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
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Wearing kimono, we Japanese usually wear tabi on feet instead of socks and stockings. In the present, we almost put on Western-style clothes like T-shirt, jeans and so on. Lately, we have seldom been familiar with tabi, then. What is the meaning to wear tabi now?

Neighbor of Tokyo, Saitama prefecture has Gyoda city. “Gyoda Tabi” is their traditional one since the Edo period. Kineya Tabi have produced tabi there after the World War 2 ended. In the 1930s, the city made the largest amount of tabi in Japan.

Looking at their lineup, you can know they have created various kinds of Gyoda tabi, like ones for high-heeled shoes. Tabi is no more a living fossil swimming within Japan. Getting progressed, they are well-adapted to the present styles.

Wouldn’t you take a look at the outlook? Big toes and others exist apart, you can see. It is said those were for going along with Japanese sandals called zori. Zori are said not to choose feet. No matter how malformed your feet are, zori and tabi softly wrap those.

Why do we wear tabi? The answer is in order to guard our feet. Actually, there are a lot of the sufferers who keep wearing unsuitable shoes and feel pain on feet. So the meaning of tabi must be more important than older times.