Saturday, March 21, 2015

Photos of Japanese University Graduates in March


March is the graduation season in Japan. All Japanese schools start a new school year in the beginning of April and finish it in March. So, sometime during this month, schools all over Japan hold their graduation ceremony.

At the ceremony, students need to be formal, which is not a problem for Jr. high school / high school graduates since most of them have school uniforms. How about university graduates? Actually most university students wear traditional Japanese clothes at their Graduation Ceremony and nobody wears Western style gown although most university freshmen wear Western suits at the Entrance Ceremony.


So, in March people often come across university graduates wearing traditional clothes like in the photos above. Girl graduates are especially gorgeous with their kimono, but you can see two different styles of kimono in the photos. The most popular style among girl graduates is not a standard formal kimono, though there is one girl wearing a standard formal kimono for young lady in the left photo.


The most popular style is called “Hakama style” which is a combination of Kimono and long wide trousers which you can see in other two photos on the right. In old times Hakama was used when Samurai daughters learned how to use swords or spears.


After Japan got a modern government, the style became a typical high school girls clothes, because in those days people still wore kimonos every day. Unfortunately, actions were too limited with kimonos. The Hakama style solved the problem so it was considered a very modern style of the new era and became popular among young girls. The style continues to be attractive as a school girls’ style, and many girls still choose to wear it at their graduation ceremony.

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