Re: Eight-sole sandals

Having entered this forum now, I'm writing this comment without knowing how to write.

I (Mikipapa) am 71 years old now. I was born and grown up before the war in a house of "wholesaling hemp-backing straw sandals" in Hyogo Prefecture.

Do you know hemp-backing straw sandals? Leaving it for a while, my house sold eight-sole sandals too of course.

They were the cheapest footwear at that time (as straw sandals made in countryside were not for sale).

The sandals are made of the cheapest tatami mat surface, willow twigs stitched on it, and chunks of wood nailed up on them. You will be able to see the real things at Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectual Museum in Koganei Park.

In around 15th year of Showa (1930) before the war, apprentices of shops were given them to wear. Advantages of them were that foot could stay dry at water places, the life was long as the wood backings didn't wear out easily, materials used were cheap, and so on. They made unique noises at walking but no one did care about them. The thongs were made of the cheapest white cotton with straws wrapped in it. They were such things that present people will suffer from abrasion by thorn as soon as they use them.

They couldn't be found after the war. There should have been no materials of willow twigs and wood backing. As high-grade goods, sandals of bicycle tire scrap backing and rubber sandals were popular in place of sandals of hemp backing.

We called them "eight-cuts". They are good old footwear.

From Mikipapa, a little knowledgeable person for clogs, sandals and the like.