Furi-Soda Day

In Japan, the second Monday of January is a national holiday called "Coming of Age Day".

All young people reaching 20 years of age during the current year celebrate officially becoming adults by taking part in city-sponsored ceremonies and numerous private events.

These new "adults" no longer require parental consent for signing contracts, deciding where to live, getting married, and so on.

It’s an important, once-in-a-lifetime event calling for special clothing... and meticulous hair.

These days, most young men wear Western-style formal suits for the celebration day. However, some still wear the traditional dark kimono with hakama, and a few even go with bolder colors.

The young women wear a special kimono with long sleeves called a “Furisode”. These kimonos are usually brightly colored and covered with striking patterns. They’re beautiful. And, they’re expensive.

In the “old days” parents and grand-parents would often buy the furisode kimonos as a gift for the young women, but these days most furisode are borrowed from older relatives or rented just for the day.

These kimonos are multi-layered with a complex obi that ties at the back, and are difficult to wear properly without experienced help. So, the full furisode rental package usually comes with a “dresser”, as well as bookings with professional hair & make-up salons, and a session at a photo studio.

A full furisode rental package can cost thousands of dollars and reservations must usually be made a year in advance.

Back in 2013, as an on-going joke, I used to tease our daughter about her upcoming “FuriSoda" day, and even went so far as to create a CG mock-up of a “FuriSoda” can.

In January of 2022, I came across that old “FuriSoda” image and thought, “I can do better than that”, and created this short animation using images from our daughter’s “Coming of Age Day” photo shoot in 2013.

We sent the animation to our daughter, telling her it was video of a new brand of soda being sold at 7-11 convenience stores throughout Japan.

Unfortunately, participation in “Coming of Age Day” ceremonies has been declining steadily over the years, along with the wearing of kimonos. And, as of April 1st of 2022, the “age of consent” in Japan will be lowered from 20 to 18.

This is causing additional confusion regarding the future of the holiday, and great concern among the kimono shops that make a large portion of their yearly income from the furisode kimono rentals worn during the celebrations.