What you definitely won't be able to see on the feet of a Japanese samurai is the "classic" closed-toe shoe. From the outside, it may seem at all that all the ancient Japanese wore only socks. Is this really so and why in the land of the rising sun no one thought of normal shoes, boots or boots?
Closed-toe shoes were in Japan, although they were not very popular either among ordinary people or among the nobility. Closed-toe shoes were called tsurumaki and kegutsu. In fact, these are ordinary leather shoes, the construction of which is sometimes supplemented with fur. Such shoes did not become widespread, first of all in view of the complexity of their manufacture, and secondly, because of their banal uselessness: the climate in Japan is quite warm, even in winter.
Much more often on the feet of the Japanese, including the military class, you can see waraji, a cross between Eastern European sandals and antique sandals from the Mediterranean. The construction of the waraji is extremely simple: it is a very dense woven straw sole with laces and loops attached to it for attaching to the feet. Such shoes were worn both on bare feet and together with Japanese thick Tabi socks with a separated thumb.
Why have the Japanese preferred waraji over “normal” closed toe shoes for centuries? As already noted, Japan has a very mild climate. At the same time, the strong straw sole is more than enough to effectively separate the damp and cold soil from the foot. At the same time, in Japan, since ancient times, it was not customary to walk in shoes indoors. And here the waraji were very useful. Such shoes were easily removed from the foot and just as easily put back on them.
At the same time, like Eastern European sandals, waraji had an extremely short service life. If the weather was damp, the Japanese could endure up to two or three pairs of waraji in one week. Therefore, the production of such shoes was on stream. Almost every family in Japan knew how to knit such sandals. It is also interesting that they are used to this day. True, in our time, only Buddhist monks wear such shoes.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about when did bast shoes appear, and how many pairs of them did the peasant wear out per week.