Deaccessioned Newark Museum Women’s Geta

Description

Officially remove from the listed holdings of The Newark Museum of Art. Women’s geta hand carved from wood with hand painted black lacquer. Beautiful handmade red and black textile thong on top.

A Geta, also known as Muji (Chinese: 木屐, Japanese: 下駄) is a traditional Japanese footwear that resembles flip-flops. A kind of sandals, geta have a flat wooden base elevated with up to three (though commonly two) “teeth”. Held on the foot with a fabric thong, which keeps the foot raised above the ground.

Oiran (花魁) – high-ranking courtesans of the feudal period in Japan – wore tall, lacquered koma-geta or mitsu-ashi when walking in a parade with their attendants. Whereas geisha and maiko wore tabi socks. Oiran chose not to, even in winter, as the bare foot against a lacquered clog was an erotic scene. She leaves the toes poking out under their expensive and highly-decorated padded kimono.

Maiko (geisha in training) wear distinctive tall geta called okobo. Very young girls also wear okobo (also called “pokkuri” and “koppori”) that have a small bell inside a cavity in the thick sole. These geta don’t have teeth, but formed of one piece of wood. The middle part is carved out from below and the front is sloped to accommodate for walking.

Dimensions: 9″ x 3′ x 2″

*Old piece. Sell in used, pre-owned condition. Vintage and antique items by nature have variable amounts of wear, imperfections, signs of use, age and time. Perfectly imperfect. Condition shown as in pictures. Kindly contact us if you need more info. or detail pictures.