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Topic 1．Japanese military footwear

Let’s take a closer look at the feet of the Japanese soliders.

● How are they depicted?

The Battle of Port Arthur
British Library shelfmark： 16126.d.1(28)
Title： The Battle of Port Arthur
BRITISH LIBRARY
All images of the prints used on this website are provided by the British Library and are in the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN

First of all, let's look at this print which shows soldiers heading into battle at Port Arthur. They are not wearing military boots but straw sandals (waraji). We can see that they have straw sandals over black socks with gaiters around their lower legs. It may strike us as odd that they are wearing Western style uniforms but have traditional Japanese straw sandals on their feet. And we may wonder how suitable straw sandals were for battle but here we see the soldiers wearing waraji as they fight their way across a river.

The Japanese 1st Army destroys Fengtian Prefecture
British Library shelfmark： 16126.d.2(73)
Title： The Japanese 1st Army destroys Fengtian Prefecture
BRITISH LIBRARY
All images of the prints used on this website are provided by the British Library and are in the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN

This next print shows the fighting at Fengtian Prefecture during winter. Despite the snow piled all around, the soldier on the left (identified as Sergeant Harada Jūkichi) is running in straw sandals and gaiters. He is wearing an overcoat but in just waraji his feet must have been freezing! Meanwhile the officer on horseback (Lieutenant General Nozu Michitsura) is wearing boots. In fact it seems that the cavalry always wore boots and that is how they are shown in other prints.

Braving a blizzard a lone Japanese officer reconnoitres enemy positions
British Library shelfmark： 16126.d.2(43)
Title： Braving a blizzard a lone Japanese officer reconnoitres enemy positions
BRITISH LIBRARY
All images of the prints used on this website are provided by the British Library and are in the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN

Here we see a reconnaissance mission in a violent snowstorm. The officer on horseback is wearing boots as we might expect but the infantryman accompanying him appears to have on his feet snow boots woven from straw. Of all the individuals shown in the prints, these two are the most warmly dressed and even have goggles to protect their eyes from the driving snow which testifies to the intense cold and the strength of the blizzard. Surely it must have been impossible to walk in straw shoes in the snowdrifts and blizzard conditions?

Aboard the battleship Matsushima during the Battle of the Yalu River two sailors facing death ask about the fate of the enemy ship
British Library shelfmark： 16126.d.1(1)
Title： Aboard the battleship Matsushima during the Battle of the Yalu River two sailors facing death ask about the fate of the enemy ship
BRITISH LIBRARY
All images of the prints used on this website are provided by the British Library and are in the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN

This print depicts sailors on the deck of a warship that has been hit by enemy fire during the Battle of the Yalu River [Battle of the Yellow Sea]. The sailor with the bandaged leg, the sailor trying to stand up and the sailor lying prone on the deck are all have only black socks (tabi) on their feet. Looking at the soles of the feet that are facing towards us we can see that the bottoms of the tabi are a different colour. These are probably what are known as takajō-tabi 鷹匠足袋 (literally "falconer's tabi") which had stitching on the soles to strengthen them so they could be worn in direct contact with the ground –like a forerunner of jika-tabi which have rubber soles although these did not appear until after time of the Sino-Japanese War. These tabi would have allowed sailors to work on the decks without slipping.

A Japanese warship opens fire near Haiyang Island
British Library shelfmark： 16126.d.2(85)
Title： A Japanese warship opens fire near Haiyang Island
BRITISH LIBRARY
All images of the prints used on this website are provided by the British Library and are in the public domain.
PUBLIC DOMAIN

This is another scene from the Battle of the Yalu River showing sailors firing a gun onboard a Japanese warship. None of them are wearing shoes or boots – all are barefoot. Perhaps this was so that they didn't slip on the decks and so made it easier for them to carry out their duties but it must have been very dangerous to be barefoot in a battle!

So we can see from the prints that Japanese troops did not always wear military boots. In the army infantrymen fought in tabi and straw sandals, while in the navy sailors wore tabi or went barefoot. The combination of tabi and straw sandals was traditionally Japanese but why, when they had adopted Western-style uniforms, did their footwear lag a step behind? The tabi and straw sandals were provided by the army and were regarded as official military equipment.

So how was this footwear supplied to the troops? Let's look at some relevant documents from the archives.

● How are they recorded?

  • Reference Code： C06060080800
  • Title： 26 February．Report on purchase of shoes for 5th Division
pdf

This is a telegram sent by Lieutenant General Nozu Michitsura, commander of the 5th Division Hiroshima Garrison, to the Minister of War Ōyama Iwao on 26 February 1894 – i.e. before the China and then Japan began to station their forces in Korea in response to the outbreak of the Donghak Peasant Rebellion. It states that despite reductions in the budget there is still a need for "straw shoes" (waraji) and that preparations were being made to purchase them from contingency funds. This document shows that in the build-up to major military action preparations were underway to provide straw sandals for the troops.

  • Reference Code： C06021813400
  • Title： Provision of straw sandals for noncommissioned officers in the specially accommodated unit, from 4th Division
pdf

This is another document about the provision of straw sandals for the military. It is from the Army Ministry authorising the supply of 1,667 pairs of straw sandals and tabi to the 4th Division for use by non-commissioned officers and lower ranks of the special units (military units formed temporarily during times of war). Dated 20 December 1894 it allows each man to carry 1 pair of straw sandals and tabi for use in emergencies from which we can infer that the figure of 1,667 roughly represents the total number of non-commissioned oficers and lower ranks. The 4th Division was later sent to the Liaodong Peninsula in China to guard Japanese occupied territory.

  • Reference Code： C06021702900
  • Title： Inspector of Field Operations re supply of 50,000 pairs of tabi for the 2nd Army
pdf

This document dated 1 December 1894 relates to the supply of tabi (Japanese socks). It is from the Army Ministry to the Inspector of Field Operations allowing the provision of 50,000 pairs of Waraji kakesashi tabi 草鞋掛刺足袋 for the 2nd Army. This probably refers to robust tabi for use with straw sandals specially strengthened with layers of cloth and tightly sewn to prevent damage to the parts which come into direct contact with the straw. So it appears that at the same time as they were supplied with straw sandals, as we noted above, the soldiers were also given these specially adapted tabi to wear with them.

  • Reference Code： C05121576400
  • Title： Donations of straw snow boots from Akita Prefecture
pdf

We have seen how soldiers went to war wearing straw sandals and tabi supplied by the army but in winter, especially in the battlefields of north-east China with its freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls, the usual waraji were not enough. This document sent in September 1894 by the Governor of Akita Prefecture to the Under-Secretary of the Army records that an appeal had been made throughout the prefecture to make and donate 10,000 pairs of straw snow boots within 60 days. These straw snow boots were probably similar to those still used in north-eastern Japan – for example fukagutsu (深沓), a type of straw slipper with covered toes or yukigutsu (雪靴), a boot woven from straw – but the precise details are unclear. Whatever form they took, it is clear that, as winter approached, large quantities of straw footwear for use in snow were supplied by residents of snowy regions of Japan and sent to the troops on the battlefield.

  • Reference Code： C06021797300
  • Title： From the Inspector of Field Operations asking the Supply Depot to prepare blanket-lined takajō-tabi
pdf
  • Reference Code： C06021827900
  • Title： From the Inspector of Field Operations asking the Ujina Branch Freight Factory to prepare blanket-lined tabi
pdf

These two documents relate to tabi for use in cold weather. Reference Code：C06021797300 is authorisation from the Army Ministry (dated 25 November 1894) of a request from the Inspector of Field Operations for the supply depot at Ujin to provide 110,000 pairs of blanket-lined takajō-tabi as the 1st Army made preparations to move into snowy conditions. These takajō-tabi (literally "falconer's tabi") had stitching on the soles to strengthen them so they could be worn in direct contact with the ground and these blanket-lined versions were clearly meant to keep out the cold in winter. Reference Code：C06021827900 was written a month later on 27 December 1894 and records the preparation of an additional 100,000 pairs of blanket-lined takajō-tabi. It also asks for them to be made using thicker blanket or, failing that, two layers of blanket so that the tabi can still be used even when they get old and worn. During the Sino-Japanese War, Ujina played an important strategic role as the port for Hiroshima, which was the site of the Imperial General Headquarters. From Ujina large numbers of troops and quantities of supplies were transported to the battle front. Presumably the blanket-lined tabi mentioned in these documents were also despatched from here in due course to the soldiers fighting in the cold regions of the war zone.