Skip to main content

Zori Making

We spent the last two days after classes learning to make a traditional Japanese shoe.  They are made by hand to be about a centimeter too small for your feet, and are generally worn with kimono.  We made ours using only rope, some foam-like tubing, fabric, our own hands, and a sort of wooden needle just for pulling fabric through in loops.
Materials.

The beginning.

Weaving strips of fabric into the rope, nice and tight for a firm foundation.

About to attach the straps, using the foam tubing.

More weaving.

The straps have been woven in!

All I have to do is attach the strap where your toes go around.

They're pretty much done!

The bottom of the finished zori, before trimming.

I can wear my shoes!

Finished!


Next to Lynn's.
Labels:

Comments

  1. PattyJuly 26, 2011 at 9:24 AM

    I'd know those cute little piggies anywhere! These are really cool...any chance you'd be willing to help me make a pair when you come home...?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlysseJuly 26, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    I can certainly try! But there are a few knots and weaving techniques that I don't know how to do, so it will be an experiment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DeigeaJuly 26, 2011 at 6:45 PM

    Nice feet :P
    "no needles used. only fabric and rope." -Alysse
    Hmmmmmmmmm.... I think I see a piece of pointed wood that would disagree...

    ReplyDelete
  4. AlysseJuly 27, 2011 at 2:42 AM

    It's not a needle, it's a pull-y through-er thing so we could tuck in extra fabric.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Japan

Before I jump straight into this list, I want to clarify that some of these points may be generally incorrect, or could be exclusive to Tokyo.  I could also have some of my reasonings wrong.  This list is simply something I compiled based off of my own experiences throughout the year that I lived and traveled throughout Japan. This list is also not, in any way, a complete one.  I'm sure if you search the internet you can find many other very true facts about Japan that I have forgotten to list here. In urban areas there will, at any given time or place, be at least one コンビニ ("conbini" / convenience store) within walking distance. Japanese people don’t usually have  middle names . Japanese people are very interested in each others' blood type - it's like astrology in America, except people take it very seriously.  Expect to be asked what your blood type is at least once. Japanese deodorant supposedly doesn't work very well.  I brought my own deodo...
5 comments
Read more

Osawadai Elementary School

Just a short (15 minute) walk from campus there is an elementary school, and I was one of the people who visited it today.  When we first walked in, we saw a bike rack... full of unicycles!?  Two steps into their territory and Japanese children are already proving their superiority over me.  We walked into the school building where we took off our shoes and were given slippers to wear.  Then we met all the children (the 5th grade class) in the gym.  Each of us was paired up with two children.  My partners were Yuta (the boy) and Olivia (the girl... obviously).  The children gave us a tour of the school.  Olivia is half British and fluent in English just as much as she is in Japanese, so I received a very comprehensive tour.  Her accent was very interesting, as you can imagine.  Yuta was pretty good at English, too, but was a little bit shy and spacey.  This elementary school was just amazing.  They had classrooms for each grade...
5 comments
Read more

Never Forget

On November 25th I got on a bus headed toward Iwate, a coastal prefecture in Northern Japan located half way between the Northernmost part before the Hokkaido island, and Fukushima, where, on March 11th a powerplant encountered many difficulties and became dangerous to the surrounding area.  The city we went to was called Rikuzentakata.  Rikuzentakata is a unique place, because it is located in a nook of land with the sea accessible on two sides. Before I go any further into this story, I want to explain why I am bothering at all.  Unless you were very young on March 11th, 2011 or have no access to the media, you are fully aware of what happened in Norhern Japan, and realize the destruction it caused.  So, why bring it up again?  It is true that, by telling you about my experience in Iwate, I will not change what happened.  But that is not my purpose.  What I ask of you is that you simply never forget what you know.  As of now, eight months a...
2 comments
Read more