Gyoda tabi socks are manufactured in Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture and have been a well-known local specialty product since the middle of the Edo era. They were shipped to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and the Tohoku region at the time. In the late Edo era, when the sewing machine was introduced to Japan, they started being mass produced and Gyoda became the number one production center of tabi socks in the country. Their long heritage has been preserved to this day as a necessary Japanese fashion item.