What Is Tabi? Wearing Zouri And Geta With Kimono

Hello, everyone.

Tabi is one of the necessary items for Kimono.

Let’s know more about Tabi’s history and rank.

What’s tabi?

Tabi are kimono socks. Toe part is separated into two and wear zouri.

Tabi is mainly made of cotton and it is easy to wash.

White tabi is suitable for formal and casual kimono.

For men, the color is black or navy blue. For women and kids are white or various colors.

We can find lots of embroidered tabi.

The toe part is separated to the first toe from the rest of toes.

And the heel part has 2 to 5 fasteners.

Most people wear Tabi which fits perfectly, so they buy custom made Tabi.

For daily use, you can wear any Tabi, like colorful, animal patterns and stretch types(stretch means comfort to wear).

But for the special occasion, for example, a wedding or Coming of Age ceremony, it’s important to wear Tabi that fits the scene.

So they order more fashionable and classy Tabi.

The Tabi maker takes customers footprints and customers orders per 6 units.

The history of Tabi

In the old days Tabi(足袋) used to write「単皮」or「踏皮].

Thea Kanji「足袋」 is written since the Muromachi period.

In the early Edo period, people used to wear Tabi made of deerskin leather.

In the Meireki(1655~1658), a  disastrous fire destroyed the greater part of the Edo City.

At the time, it was all the mode that firefighters wore leather fire coat and leather price became higher.

So people started to wear Tabi made of cotton.

In the later Edo period, men compete for dandyism. So there are so many types of fashionable Tabi.

On the other hand, many artists drew paintings that women show the beauty of barefoot.

The way to wash

Before wash tabi, soak it in water and iron.

Tabi is easy to get dirty and inappropriate to use dirty ones for tea ceremony and tatami room.

So please make sure to have many tabi 😉

Summary

Thank you for reading this to the end.

Did you interested in tabi?

Hope you can find your favorite tabi.

Why don’t you start an amazing Kimono life?