naruto sand art

It’s time for all the seniors to find their own “way of the ninja!”

It’s March now, and in Japan that means it’s nearly the end of school year. For students in their final year of high school, it’s time for them to move on to college, work, or whatever else they want to do with their lives, and say goodbye to their teachers and friends.

And at Shiga Prefecture’s Ayaha High School, they have a very special tradition of sending off the high school seniors: creating an unbelievable sand-art masterpiece on the tennis courts. (Click picture to enlarge.)

▼ “The tennis club kept up their tradition of making sand-art on the courts. Amazing!”

That is some very impressive work, especially considering the only materials used to create it were sand and the green tennis court underneath it.

But possibly even more impressive is that creating spectacular sand-art for the graduating seniors is a 10-year-long tradition at Ayaha High School. Here’s what they did last year: (Click to enlarge.)

▼ One Piece’s Luffy wishing the graduating class good luck.

And to think, all of the sand in these works of art will slowly be blown away in the wind, going in their own directions and finding new places to live… just like all of the graduating students. How symbolic!

Er, that is, that’s what would happen if the students weren’t required to clean all the sand off the courts immediately following the end of the graduation ceremony. Kind of hurts the “slowly parting from each other” symbolism, but hey, the tennis club has to practice somewhere!

Either way, this tradition is still an incredible display of gratitude from the younger students to those graduating. Let’s hope it continues for as many years as there are anime characters for them to draw.

Source: Twitter/@ayahakoukou via NetLab
Featured/top image: Twitter/@ayahakoukou