File:YokohamaShoemaker.jpg

"Yokohama, Japan. A Shoemaker Mending Rain Shoes."

Scanned from period stereo view card, c. 1900

No listing of publisher, date, nor any assertion of copyright.

Text on reverse:

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN. A SHOEMAKER MENDING RAIN SHOES

This man seems to be a carpenter rather than a shoemaker, and the shoes he is mending are of wood. They are a kind of wooden clogs, called geta, worn out of doors. The Japanese wear on their feet a kind of sock, named tabi, reaching only to the ankle and having a separate compartment for the big toe. Of straw sandals there are two kinds, the movable zori, used for light work, and the waraji which are bound tightly around the feet with straw strings and used for hard walking only. People of means wear only the tabi indoors, for a very simple reason. There are no chairs, sofas, or lounges in a Japanese house. The mats on the floor are all they have to sit on, and they must be perfectly clean, of course. Consequently, on entering a house, the clogs or sandals are left outside, for who would think of stepping on chairs or sofas with his boots on? Foreigners who disregard this cleanly custom upon entering a house or temple give grave offense.

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