Geta
Pinkie Mclucas
Geta (下駄) (pl. geta)[1] are traditional Japanese footwear resembling flip-flops. A kind of sandal, geta have a flat wooden base elevated with up to three (though commonly two) "teeth", held on the foot with a fabric thong, which keeps the foot raised above the ground.
This style of geta was likely worn as a point of visual distinction between oiran, geisha and their apprentice geisha, as though the former entertained the upper classes, the latter did not, and were considered to be lower-class, despite their immense popularity.
Geta are primarily worn with yukata, but sometimes also with Western clothing during the summer months. As geta are usually worn only with yukata or other informal Japanese clothes or Western clothes, there is no need to wear socks. Ordinarily, people wear slightly more formal zori when wearing tabi.
Geta are worn with the foot overhanging the back and a finger-width of space between the strap and the skin webbing between the toes. The toes pinch the strap to lift the toe of the geta. Wearing them otherwise can make balancing more difficult and blisters more likely.[4]
Sometimes geta are worn in rain to keep the feet dry, due to their extra height and impermeability compared to other footwear such as zori. The inflexibility of geta means that water and dirt are not flipped up onto the back of the legs.
The dai may vary in shape, from oval shapes to more rectangular, with the former being considered more feminine and the latter more masculine. Geta also vary in colour from natural wood to lacquered or wood-stained varieties. The ha may also vary in style; for example, tengu geta have only a single centered "tooth". There are also less common geta with three teeth.
Maiko (geisha in training) wear distinctive tall geta called okobo, which are similar to the chopines worn in Venice during the Renaissance. Very young girls also wear okobo (also called pokkuri and koppori) that have a small bell inside a cavity in the thick sole. These geta have no teeth, but are formed of one piece of wood. The middle part is carved out from below and the front is sloped to accommodate for walking.
Geta are made of one piece of solid wood forming the sole and two wooden blocks underneath. These blocks may have a metal plate on the section that touches the ground in order to lengthen the life span of the geta. A V-shaped thong of cloth forms the upper part of the sandal.
The teeth are usually not separate, instead, the geta is carved from one block of wood. The tengu tooth is, however, strengthened by a special attachment. The teeth of any geta may have harder wood drilled into the bottom to avoid splitting, and the soles of the teeth may have rubber soles glued onto them.
The hanao can be wide and padded, or narrow and hard, and can be made with many sorts of fabric. Printed cotton with traditional Japanese motifs is popular, but there are also geta with vinyl and leather hanao. Inside the hanao is a cord (synthetic in modern times, but traditionally hemp) that is knotted in a special way to the three holes of the dai. In the wide hanao there is some padding as well. The hanao are replaceable. It sits between the two first toes because having the thong of rectangular geta anywhere but the middle would result in the inner back corners of the geta colliding when walking.
Recently, as Western shoes have become more popular, more Western-looking geta have been developed. They are more round in shape, may have an ergonomically shaped dai, a thick heel as in Western clogs, instead of separate teeth, and the thong at the side as in flip-flops. According to Japanese superstition, breaking the thong on one's geta is considered very unlucky.[6]
So, yesterday, I believe I found a bug in geta categories and epi import/export. We exported/imported some pages from pre-production to production for a DXP client and clicked the checkbox to include sub-items and to export files that the content links to.
Now, on prod, we can see what appears to be 3 different "category root" nodes. The "wrong" one is currently used what clicking the Categories tab in the assets pane and when interacting with category related properties in edit mode. The "right" one, can only be seen here and is not used in assigning geta categories. The third one with just a dash appears to be from another import where this happened, except it was ordered after the right one, so it didn't overwrite the category root. The content id of the "right" one is 14 and the content id of the "wrong" one is 29688. Maybe there is a simple database query I can write to correct this?
These geta can also be called "Tengu Geta". With one unstable cleat, they allow right balancing of joints and muscles.
Some muscles not used in everyday life will have the opportunity to work regularly through walking with these Geta, which will develop
also the balance of the body.
Today, many BUDOKA (Japanese martial arts practitioners) use these Geta for daily exercise. This practice can also be beneficial for people with bone deformities (spine, etc.)
* The weight does not rest on the heel but between the 1st and 2nd toes.
** At the beginning, the foot protrudes slightly behind but with regular use, the HANAO (thongs) will relax little by little and the position of the feet will move to the center.