Gyoda Tabi

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Gyoda Tabi is the traditional technique of tabi (split-toe sock) making handed down in Gyoda City, Saitama Prefecture, and is a Traditional Craft Product designated by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Lying between the Tonegawa and Arakawa rivers, Gyoda has sandy alluvial soil, abundant water, and a hot, humid summer climate well suited to growing cotton and indigo, and in the Edo period it became a major production center for the indigo-dyed cotton cloth known as 'aojima.' Building on this cotton cloth and its sewing techniques, tabi making is said to have begun around the Jokyo-Kyoho era (late 17th to early 18th century), and by the Tenpo era the town had grown to house 27 tabi shops side by side. When sewing machines were introduced in the Meiji era, production expanded dramatically, and by 1938 Gyoda accounted for 80% of the nation's tabi output, making it Japan's leading tabi-producing area. Numerous 'tabi-gura' storehouses built of earthen walls and brick, which convey the prosperity of that era, still remain throughout the city, and in 2017 the city was certified as a Japan Heritage site under the title 'Tabi-gura Town of Gyoda, Supporting the Feet of Japanese Kimono Culture.' A collection of 5,484 related items has also been designated a Nationally Designated Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property, and local makers continue to produce a wide range of tabi today, from those for kimono wear to festival and running tabi.