Tsuru Japanese Silk Shoe - Size 5

These Shoes are part of the Japanese Silk Collection from Ruth Emily Davey’s travels to Japan in 2016 as part of her Fellowship with The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. She collected a piece of fabric from all the Craft organisations / Workshops she visited to commemorate her travels into a collection celebrating Japanese Traditional Craft.

The uppers are made from hand woven Japanese kimono silk from Yuzen Kyoto. They have been hand painted with gold leaf featuring a Crane - a powerful symbol of Japan representing Peace, Love and Longevity. The uppers have rolled edges which are fully lined in soft, sumptuous black suede.

All our Shoes are naturally foot shaped. They are designed to be snug around your arch and wide enough to allow your toes to spread into the toe box. Our Footwear is all built to last - designed to be repairable for many years to come.

Our Shoes are made using a special leather innersole which is flexible so your feet can feel very natural - like wearing no shoes at all. We back them with a tyre tread with a very minimal 3mm heel. When your shoes need new soles, simply send them back and we give them a new lease of life.

• Size 5

• Toe shape - Standard

• Made from handprinted Japanese Kimono Silk.

• Fully lined.

• Double outsole stitched. Finished with white stitching.

• 5mm soft leather inner soles tanned in the UK - flexible so your footprint embeds into the sole over time.

• Rubber Tyre tread outer soles - replaceable when they wear down.

• Handmade matching leather laces reinforced with waxed thread.

Kyo-Yuzen is a technique of hand painting and dyeing silk mainly used for kimonos. It is a combination of beautiful colours and pictorial designs such as flowers, trees, birds, and scenery drawn and dyed on white silk by brush and often finished with gold leaf or embroidery. The beauty of nature is expressed on the fabric. Kyo-Yuzen has two dyeing styles: Tegaki-Yuzen, hand-painting, and Kata-Yuzen, stencil-dyeing. Hand-painting techniques were originally developed by Yuzensai Miyazaki in Kyoto in the middle of 17th century, therefore, the artform came to be called Yuzen. After that, stencil-dyeing techniques were developed by Jisuke Hirose in Kyoto during the 19th century.