, also referred to as , or (all onomatopoeic terms taken from the sound make when walking), are traditional Japanese wooden sandals worn by young girls for , young women during

Coming of Age Day is a public holiday in Japan held annually on the second Monday of January. It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached or will reach the age of maturity (20 years old) between April 2 of the previous year an ...

and apprentice geisha in some regions of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. are typically made from a solid block of

paulownia ''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood tree (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. They are present in much of China, south to northern Laos and Vietnam and are long cultivat ...

wood, a lightweight

hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

native to East Asia and often cultivated there. range from tall, and can be decorated, lacquered black or left plain; the plain varieties are not waxed. are kept on the foot with a thong strap known as the ; this is tied to the shoe by the use of knots passed through drilled holes – one at the front of the shoe, through the underside of the slope, and two through the central block of the shoe. The centre of the shoe is drilled out, leaving it hollow, and the ends of the are tied in this hollow. The front knot may hold a small bell in place, and the hole is typically covered with a small metal cover known as the (, literally , "front" + , "metal"). In smaller , the bell is secured by the back two knots. The worn by apprentice geisha are generally taller than most, being tall, and have either no finish or, in the summer months, a plain black lacquered finish. The worn by young girls and women are generally shorter, and often feature multicoloured, lacquered designs on the sides of the shoe. worn for celebrations may instead feature

brocade Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian ''broccato'' meaning "embos ...

fabric decorating the outside of the shoe, with a woven

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

base (known as ) on top. straps can be made of any material for young women and girls, though they are typically made of brocade fabric, velvet or otherwise decorated silk or polyester silk. For apprentice geisha, are always worn plain, with the colour worn indicating the stage of an apprentice's training: red straps are worn by new apprentices, whereas yellow straps are worn by senior apprentices at the end of their apprenticeship. File:Clogs, pair (AM 6337-2).jpg, Side view of another pair. Red-gold-green brocade , wood lacquered in red with gold and green decoration File:Clogs, pair (AM 6337-1).jpg, The same pair from above, showing (4-warp woven bamboo-skin topsole; see

zōri Zori (), also rendered as zōri ( ja, , ), are thonged Japanese sandals made of rice straw, cloth, lacquered wood, leather, rubber, or—most commonly and informally—synthetic materials. They are a slip-on descendant of the tied-on sandal. ...

) File:Clogs, pair (AM 6337-5).jpg, The same pair from below, showing more clearly than side view File:Clogs, pair (AM 1975.96-2).jpg, A third pair from below. Black lacquer sides, red plush , no

References

Sandals Japanese footwear Japanese words and phrases {{clothing-stub

See also

References