In Japanese culture, geisha are endowed with a special status that is not always understood by Europeans. Complex clothes, intricate hairstyles and unusual shoes of geisha and their students - maiko - are of considerable interest to many.
Geisha Students Shoes
It is not always possible for outsiders to correctly assess the nuances and details of Japanese culture. Therefore, often brighter, attracting attention not only by beauty, but also by an unusual outfit, students of geisha, maiko, are mistaken by foreigners for the "teachers" themselves.
Strange maiko shoes can bewilder any European. Okobo or pokkuri is a traditional part of their dress. She represents patent sandals on a high and unstable platform. The center of gravity of such shoes is shifted to the heels, the front part is beveled at an angle of thirty to forty degrees, which makes the gait in the okobo jumping and awkward, if you do not know the secret of the correct movement in them.
Previously, the shoes of geisha students were equipped with special bells, which melodiously accompanied each short step, informing everyone that a beautiful and mysterious maiko was approaching.
Walking properly in the okobo is a bit like rolling on old roller skates. With each step, the maiko should slide one foot forward, moving in very small steps. When moving in okobo, it is necessary to bend the toes and spring a little in the knee area. At the same time, it is important to correctly hold the body and shoulders, slightly waving your hands, but not lifting them from the body.
The nuances of perception
Europeans often perceive the gait of a maiko wearing an okobo as too mannered. In fact, a complex set of movements is associated with an imbalance in shoes and the peculiarities of a not too wide female kimono. That is why the Japanese women themselves cannot always go to the okobo correctly. Maiko calls such a characteristic swimming gait, claiming that you can learn to move in this way if you imagine yourself as a sea wave rolling onto the shore.
Due to the height of the traditional maiko shoes, a geisha student should not be more than one hundred and sixty centimeters tall. Taller girls with okobo and tall hairstyles make them too tall and inharmonious.
What do geisha wear?
In most parts of Japan, the geisha themselves do not wear okobo, but a special kind of traditional wooden sandal called geta. This shoe is the same for both feet (there is no division into left and right sandals), it is held on the feet with the help of straps that go between the big and second toes. Geta has long been a staple shoe in Japan, worn by all walks of life. Despite the fact that Europeans find such shoes terribly uncomfortable, many Japanese still wear them.
