---
node: garment_geta
type: garment
slug: geta
title: "Geta"
lead: "Geta are wooden sandals raised on two crosswise supports, held on by a thong between the first and second toes. The height keeps the wearer's hem and feet out of mud and snow, which is what the design is for."
published: 2026-08-17
updated: 2026-08-17
image_file: geta.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geta.JPG"
image_author: "Haragayato"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

A geta is one block of paulownia or cedar with two teeth cut or fitted underneath, and a cord — the hanao — passed through three holes and knotted below. Nothing is sized to the foot: the heel overhangs the back, which is correct rather than careless, and one pair fits a range of feet because the thong does the holding. Edo townspeople wore them everywhere, and the sound of the teeth on stone is a fixture of the period's writing about streets at night.

## How it is worn

The thong sits between the big toe and the second toe and the foot rests flat; the toes grip lightly, and the walk is a short slide rather than a stride, because a raised sole cannot roll. New hanao are stiff and are stretched by hand before wearing. Height varies with purpose — low for everyday, tall for rain and snow, and the extreme tall pair worn by apprentice geisha is a formal survival of that logic rather than an everyday shoe.

## History

Raised wooden footwear is far older than the Edo period; what Edo did was make it ordinary. Rice-field clogs are attested from the Yayoi, and the two-toothed form settles in the medieval centuries, but it is in the Edo city that geta become the shoe of everyone who is not in straw sandals, sold by specialist shops with a choice of hanao as the visible personal detail. They survive now with the yukata and at festivals, and the word has outlived the object in *geta-baco*, the shoe cupboard by the door.