Japanese university students come to graduation in unusual costumes (15 photos)

Kyoto University once allowed students to wear whatever they wanted to graduation. Students took advantage of the opportunity to turn their graduation ceremony into a fun costume event.





In this matter, the big originals were not the Americans, but the Japanese - in particular, the leadership of Kyoto University, for a second, the largest in Japan, who, together with the directors of the Kyoto City University of the Arts, figured out how to make an essentially ordinary and often quite boring graduation ceremony more interesting and memorable. They allowed graduates to come to the official graduation ceremony in whatever clothes they wanted.



Kyoto University

Probably, by their decision, university management tried to abandon any strict dress code and give graduates the opportunity to feel more free and comfortable by wearing their favorite clothes. However, in fact, former students understood this permission in their own way - as an opportunity to try on absolutely any image at the official graduation ceremony... no, you didn’t understand, absolutely any.



And in this case we are not talking about an elaborate or too revealing dress or a rock and roll suit in the style of Elvis Presley. Graduates of Kyoto University turned the graduation ceremony into a real costume ball, where there was a place for Darth Vader, and Pikachu, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Power Rangers and many, many other characters of popular culture.



By the way, the graduation ceremony at Kyoto University at some point ceased to resemble an official event, but turned into a real festival of original costumes - something akin to Comic-Con, a convention of fans of comic books and computer games. Did this bother the university management? Not at all…



Moreover, the costumed graduation ceremony not only attracted the attention of the public and the media to Kyoto University (now every graduation ceremony at this university is accompanied by a large number of journalists and photographers), but also put the educational institution itself in a very favorable light: they say that the University management strongly supports self-expression and creativity in its students and graduates.



And the graduates themselves, it must be said, were very enthusiastic about the opportunity to come to an official event at the university in an original outfit. Therefore, contrary to the opinions of spiteful critics, the “one-time event” turned into a long-term tradition that made Kyoto University famous far beyond the borders of Japan.



Whether other higher education institutions in the land of the rising sun will follow his example is unknown, but Kyoto University, it must be said, is not too worried about this - it continues to enjoy its uniqueness and relevance among applicants who also want to one day take part in the original graduation ceremony. But to do this, you first need to unlearn...