Kyoto college student shows us how awesome furisode look on the ski slopes.
Like a lot of young women in Japan who turned 20 during the past year, Japanese Twitter user @Katorisenkou_ks woke up on January 9 and put on a kimono to celebrate Coming of Age Day. But whereas most similarly dressed women were headed to their home town’s city hall or an amphitheater to listen to attend their local Coming of Age Ceremony, @Katorisenkou_ks headed up into the mountains of the town of Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, for an amazing kimono snowboarding session.
Looking especially resplendent with the crimson fabric of her kimono contrasting with the white of the snow, @Katorisenkou_ks rode the chair lift up to the top of Takeishi Banshogahara Ski Resort, then zipped down the slope in a display of cool athletic grace.
Making the whole thing extra dynamic is that, in keeping with Coming of Age Day tradition, @Katorisenkou_ks was wearing a kimono with the long, flowing sleeves called furisode. As she picks up speed, the furisode dance in the wind, adding an aura of elegance and power as she zigzags back to the bottom.
It’s a unique way to spend Coming of Age Day, to be sure, but @Katorisenkou_ks’s childhood was far from typical. Born in Aomori Prefecture, health issues kept her from being to regularly attend on-campus classes, and when it was time to start high school, she enrolled in a correspondence course, doing part-time work in Nagano in the winter.
The norm is for new 20-year-olds to go back to their home town for Coming of Age Day, but @Katorisenkou_ks, now a second-year college student in Kyoto, doesn’t have much personal attachment to the place where she grew up. On the other hand, she’s been snowboarding at Takeishi Banshogahara Ski Resort since she took up the sport at 16, making it a special place to her.
▼ She also did some furisode kimono skiing.
Takeishi Banshogahara Ski Resort is very welcoming of cosplaying snowboarders, @Katorisenkou_ks says, so she didn’t get any strange looks or snide comments for her unorthodox snowboarding attire. Instead, multiple staff members and passersby congratulated her for reaching the age that’s traditionally held to be the start of adulthood in Japan. “It was just the kind of Coming of Age Ceremony for me,” she says, and you could definitely argue that there was no more fitting way to celebrate the freedom of adulthood.
Source: Twitter/@Katorisenkou_ks, Maido na News
Top image: Twitter/@Katorisenkou_ks
Insert images: Twitter/@Katorisenkou_ks (1, 2, 3)
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