Japanese Daisuke Yamashita has probably visited more shoemakers and cobblers than anyone else alive today, something he has shared in books and on his blog. Now he has published his first e-book in English, called Bespoke Shoes in Europe & Japan Study Report. A nice overview of both various shoemaking schools and shoemaking techniques, easily available on Amazon.
I’ve highlighted Daisuke Yamashita’s work online and in books before, back in the days when the blog was only in Swedish. Since I started travelling to Japan regularly I’ve met Daisuke many times, not least when he’s kindly been accompanying me to Eiji Murata of Main d’Or to help with translations when I’ve placed my orders, had fittings etc. He’s a really knowledgeable guy when it comes to footwear, gathered not least through his two long journeys around Europe to visit loads of shoe places, everything from the famous bespoke shoemakers to small unknown cobblers and unique shoe stores.
The book cover
His book that focus on the travels to all the places in Europe was published a bunch of years ago and is only available in Japanese unfortunately, but his latest book is not published in an English translation: Bespoke Shoes in Europe & Japan Study Report. It’s available to buy as an e-book on Amazon for €9 ($10), not a high price (you can read it in the Kindle app on all devices, same login as Amazon, or in Kindle in the browser on some markets). As he states himself, he’s not the best in English so the language is a bit basic, but given that you read this blog you can obviously handle that reasonably.
A page from the book explaining different types of stitching.
Since that the book was just released I haven’t had time to read it properly, only browsed through it, but the content makes me really keen to find time to read it. To summarise it goes through the various shoemaking schools found in Europe and their characteristics, and then go more in depth on lastmaking, construction, and various shoemaking techniques. It ends with some essays with different takes on shoemaking. The text is rather concentrated, throughout there’s a bunch of images, not professional ones but taken by Daisuke that are doing its job well. Go have a look and get a copy, also to support Daisuke and maybe make it possible for him to do more shoemaking travels in the future.
One of many shoemakers Daisuike Yamashita has visited. Pictures: Daisuke Yamashita / Bespoke Shoes in Europe & Japan Study Report
Is the book also available on Kobo?