Revitalising hometown by giving traditional industy a new twist

Kazuhiro Komatsu hopes that his new range of tabi, Japanese traditional socks, will bring people and prosperity to his town, Gyoda-city in Saitama, Japan.

Kazuhiro Komatsu demonstrates the last process of making Japanese traditional socks called tabi at a Japanese inn Gojyuan in Sydney Source: SBS

Tabi is usually in plain white or black and only worn when the person is wearing a kimono, a Japanese traditional clothes. 

Kazuhiro came up with the idea of making colourful tabi with patterns so that it can be worn with Western clothes.  If his new range, Samurai Tabi, becomes popular and more people wear them, Kazuhiro thought it would bring people and jobs to Gyoda-city, the largest producer of tabi in Japan, and revitalise the city.

Kazuhiro started his promotion of Samurai Tabi outside Japan in 2014.  This year, he visited Sydney and held a fashion show of his tabi.

In the audio, Kazuhiro explains how he started his new range of traditional tabi and some health benefits of wearing them regularly.

Colouful tabi (Japanese traditional socks) of the participants. A fashion show of tabis was held in Sydney in July 2019 Source: SBS