This area is home to over 100 footwear wholesale stores and is called Hakihaki Town (footwear wholesale street). The area, retaining the atmosphere of an old Japanese town, is well known throughout Japan as a footwear wholesale district on a par with Hanakawado in Asakusa, Tokyo. Around the beginning of the Taisho Period (1912-1926), there were many craftsmen who made geta (Japanese-style clogs) in the Kita Nitto-cho district. When they began selling geta on Odaishi Market Day (the 21st of every month), named after the Buddhist priest Kobo Daishi, the geta sold relatively well, and therefore stores manufacturing and selling geta increased in this area. It is believed that this was the beginning of Hakihaki Town, which has since developed into a footwear wholesale district. There is no doubt that mass relocation of footwear wholesale shops to the present area is due to the construction of the Midosuji Avenue which played a large part in the intensive development of this area as a footwear wholesale district. In the area is a shrine venerating the guardian deity of footwear (Hakimono Jinja) and the Hakimono Kaikan Hall, which plays a major role in the revitalization of the area and the footwear industry.