Geta (footwear)

The word Geta (Japanese下 駄) denotes Japanese wooden sandals that are worn with traditional clothing such as the kimono. Typical of Geta are the high soles that served in earlier times, to keep the foot on distance from the filth of the street.

Appearance and construction

On the wooden footbed (台dai, literally: base, Plateau ) is a belt attached so that he, between the first and second toe out to top and from there to the right and bottom left, the foot provides support in the footbed. The footbed itself rests on a mostly two-part, also wooden sole ( similar to sole and heel in western footwear), which are referred to in Japanese with ha (歯, teeth). Due to the high sole of the wearer 's feet are lifted off the ground and are thus protected from mud and debris that once covered the streets.

Variants

• Ashida (足 駄): Geta A variant of the above-described scheme, in which turn out the ridges of the sole higher than ordinary Geta. It was borne by the Heian period to the Edo period and was designed specifically for use in rainy weather. They were in the first half of the 20th century also also for school clothes at high schools, making the wearing of high Geta in combination with coat and hat worn was associated with high school students.
• Yama- geta (山下 駄): A variant, both soles, and footbed are made seamlessly from the same piece of wood at the. It has been especially manufactured and offered the Edo period of carpenters. Very often, the footbed is rectangular shaped and made ​​of the wood of the paulownia tree.
• Geta Yoshiwara (吉 原 下 駄): Broadly comparable, but made ​​with the Yama- geta described above from Japanese cedar wood. The belt is made of bamboo fibers. This Geta were awarded in the first half of the Edo period of the establishment in Yoshiwara, the entertainment district of Edo to guests when rain fell.
• Pokkuri - Geta (ぽっくり 下駄): Geta, who were especially worn by the courtesans of Yoshiwara and Shimabara. Also, geishas wore these Geta variant during their training ( Maiko ). It is still generally worn by young girls. Pokkuri - Geta are quite high and on the underside lacquered black or white, sometimes also related with tatami material. They are also known as Okobo, Koppori and Kobokobo.
• Robo (露 卯): Geta with different shaped soles, where on the top of the footbed, the nails are seeing that secure the soles. They were worn in the early Edo period.
• Yanagi - Geta (柳 下 駄): Geta, in which the footbed made ​​of willow wood, the sole is made of magnolia wood.
• Ba - geta (马 下 駄): The immediate ancestor of today's Geta: square foot bed with different shaped soles and from Fir wood. The name ( "Horse - Geta " ) comes from the sound that generate the oblique shaped soles when placed on the ground.
• Koma- geta (驹 下 駄): A refinement of the Ba - geta, which are not only intended for use in rain, but in dry weather. They were worn at the beginning of the 17th century, both men and women as everyday footwear. Until the beginning of the Meiji period, you put the most common Geta variant dar.
• Kiri Geta (桐 下 駄): A costly Geta variant that emerged as a luxury item a short time after the introduction of Koma- geta. Initially, they were painted black, later offered mainly natural.
• Odawara - Geta (小田原 下 駄): A variant that originated at the beginning of the 18th century to the fish markets of Tokyo, and the archetype of subsequent dry weather Geta. Your soles could be very easily replaced and the belt made ​​of leather gave them sophisticated elegance when worn. They were preferably supported because of their value as status symbols of the dealers of the fish market.
• Ipponba - geta (一 本 歯 下 駄, " single-tooth geta " ): While Geta generally have a two-part sole, there is also a variant with only a single crosspiece per shoe, as it should have worn the Tengu. Originally Geta were worn by street performers and acrobats to carry their own sense of balance to the show. In today's time, this model enjoys renewed popularity in the wellness and chiropractic field since these Geta variant the sense of balance, the body balance and the leg muscles will be beneficial.

Prevalence and significance of

Nowadays Geta are most commonly worn traditional occasions together with the yukata and sumo fighters. A peculiarity of the shoe is that you usually hear him before you see him. The wooden footwear are at each step of a typical carrier clack of itself. It is sometimes argued that it was this sound, miss the older Japanese in modern life the most. On the other hand, it is the noise that each sumo fighters will miss the least, as the wearing of Geta is mandatory only in the two lowest leagues. In addition, the Geishas wear these shoes in winter. Future geishas ( " maiko " ) wear other shoes, so-called Okobo.

Geta in language use

A Japanese proverb says: You do not know, before you have worn geta. This phrase is used to mean that one can not know before the end of which the outcome of one match. Because wearing Geta leaves a person appear larger due to the high sole, Geta has to wear a figurative meaning: It is used to express that something larger or more extensive appears as it really is on closer inspection.

Or: A fight is not over, unless one again attracts the Geta. As a fast, secure and running in Geta is difficult and wooden slips on many surfaces, the Geta of two duelists were stripped before the fight in feudal Japan and they were fighting in Tabi or barefoot. Only when the fight was clearly decided they had to time to get back into the Geta.