Re-reading Japan’s Waraji and Court Kutsu through the Trace of Baekje
People stand on land—and land betrays them.
Rain turns roads into mud. Humid summers make everything rot faster. War snaps travel routes like twigs. And yet humans keep moving. That’s why “civilization” starts more often at the sole of the foot than at the crown of a king.
Shoes are small. But they’re brutally honest artifacts: they quietly reveal what a society needed, what it borrowed, and how it remade borrowed technology into something local.
This is a story about that honesty—told through Japan’s “everyday” straw footwear and its “state” footwear, and what Baekje might have to do with the pipeline between them.
1) Two lineages in Japan’s footwear: breathable sandals vs. power-coded shoes
When most people picture traditional Japanese footwear, they imagine waraji (straw sandals), zōri, or wooden geta—the thong-strap sandal family that grips the foot between the toes. It’s quick to put on, quick to take off, and well-suited to a hot, humid climate and an indoor culture where you remove shoes at the threshold. (Web Japan)
But there’s another lineage: shoes that wrap or cover the instep, closer to “boots/shoes” than to sandals—often linked first to ceremony, rank, and court formality rather than to daily labor. (Web Japan)
Daily shoes tend to be shaped by climate and habit.
Ritual shoes tend to be shaped by the state—because ritual is where power likes to dress up.
2) The Baekje “straw sandal” report: when an object becomes a clue
If you want this topic to stay factual (and not drift into flag-waving), you start with things you can point to.
A South Korean government press release (about a research report titled “Baekje Straw Sandals”) describes 64 pieces of Baekje-period footwear excavated from Buyeo sites (including Gungnamji and the Gwanbuk-ri area). It also notes that the sandals are dated to the Sabi period (538–660) and discusses the possibility that straw-sandal-making techniques could have been transmitted to Japan, given similarities in form. (정책브리핑)
Even better (because it’s the kind of detail readers remember): the material analysis noted the fiber was not simply rice straw, but included cattail (Typha) family plants—a reminder that “straw sandal” is really shorthand for a flexible, plant-fiber craft tradition, not a single ingredient. (정책브리핑)
That matters because it shifts the discussion from “Who invented it?” to “What craft knowledge traveled, and how?”
3) Don’t weaken the post: place the “China route” on the table, too
A Japanese cultural article summarizing traditional footwear history notes that woven straw footwear is often explained as being introduced via China around the 8th century, then adapted and refined in Japan’s environment and social habits. (Web Japan)
So the interesting question isn’t “Baekje or China—pick one.”
The interesting question is:
What did the transmission pipeline look like in practice?
(China-to-Japan directly, Korea-to-Japan via immigrant artisan networks, multiple routes at different times, or all of the above.)
4) The “people moved” proof: Baekje artisan groups inside Japan’s administrative system
Artifacts can suggest contact. Administration can show how contact became routine.
An entry on Baekje-descended artisan groups under Japan’s ritsuryō system describes “Baekje artisan” lineages tied to official production—explicitly including the making of ritual footwear (terms like kutsu/ri and straw footwear categories also appear), along with related equipment such as saddles, under designated supervision. (EncyKorea)
This is the kind of evidence that upgrades your post from “they look similar” to:
There were organized craftspeople
operating inside institutions
producing regulated items
for elite and ceremonial contexts
In other words: the state wasn’t just wearing shoes—it was managing shoe-making.
5) The tomb shoe that screams “court technology”: gilt-bronze footwear
Now the story flips from “daily survival” to “power theater.”
Japan’s Cultural Heritage Online entry for a gilt-bronze shoe (kondō-sei tō, 金銅製沓) from the Edafunayama Kofun (Kumamoto) describes it as excavated grave goods and notes the transmission context—stating that this type is considered to have been transmitted from Baekje (as part of continental influence on elite material culture). (문화재 정보센터)
Whether every detail of production location is provable in a neat sentence is less important than the structural point:
This isn’t a walking shoe.
This is a ritual object, a sign of rank, imported style, and elite identity.
And elite identity is where international exchange becomes visible fast.
So you end up with a compelling “two-shoe” frame:
Sandals show the logic of climate, mobility, and daily life.
Court shoes show the logic of institutions, hierarchy, and imported prestige.
6) The clean conclusion: stop arguing “origin,” start tracking “conversion”
Technology moves with people.
Institutions amplify technology.
Local conditions reshape the final form.
So the “Baekje trace” isn’t a trophy. It’s a method:
a way to see East Asia not as sealed boxes, but as a busy workshop where craft, labor, politics, and prestige crossed water again and again.
In the end, the most honest sentence you can write is also the most powerful:
A waraji doesn’t prove a single origin story.
It proves that the sea was never a wall—it was a road.
Sources used (for transparency)
South Korean government press release on the “Baekje Straw Sandals” research report (64 items, Buyeo excavations, material notes). (정책브리핑)
Web Japan / Nipponia cultural overview discussing traditional footwear lineages and transmission framing. (Web Japan)
EncyKorea entry on Baekje-descended artisan groups within Japan’s ritsuryō structure and regulated production. (EncyKorea)
Japan Cultural Heritage Online entry on gilt-bronze shoes from the Edafunayama Kofun and transmission context. (문화재 정보센터)
Dictionary-style description for asagutsu (court footwear term and characteristics). (롱도 사전)
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