Coming of age Day in Japan (Seijin Shiki)

Our stormtroopin' cosplayin' pal Danny Choo in Tokyo writes, "I just put up a post of yesterdays Coming of age Day in Japan. Cultural stuff where the traditional clothes may be interesting to boinboing readers. The empire got a 'trooper to go along to try and recruit some, now that they are old enough to join ;-) " That's Danny, above, in the hard-case outfit.

Here's a snip from his blog post:

Yesterday was a public holiday known as "Seijin no Hi" [成人の日] or "Coming of age day" where those who have turned 20 are declared adults meaning they can now do SDV (Smoke, Drink and Vote). In the past, the coming of age day was celebrated only among samurai families - for boys it was between 12 - 16 and for girls it was between 12 - 14 (Wikipedia). Went with writer and art director comrade Andrew Lee (who took these pics) out n about to look for fluffy rabbits - and we found many.

[#1 posted by buddy66 , January 14, 2009 12:39 PM]

What would our own 成人の日 look like?

[#2 posted by Gloria , January 14, 2009 12:58 PM]

@1: Much, much more drinking, and drunken nudity. And police.

[#3 posted by Takuan , January 14, 2009 1:01 PM]

most of these kids have the S&D well out of the way long before their twentieth. The V ain't so important either. Nonetheless, it's a great festival for them and the proud parents.

A coming-of-age ritual could be anything. I favor ordeal by stinging ants.

[#4 posted by Dark Cloud , January 14, 2009 1:04 PM]

Childhood just keeps getting longer and longer - at this rate it won't be long before you'll have to be 65 before any of the fun stuff is legal.

[#5 posted by ab5tract , January 14, 2009 1:41 PM]

"A coming-of-age ritual could be anything. I favor ordeal by stinging ants."

Sounds more appealing than a prom anyway.

[#6 posted by ekricyote , January 14, 2009 1:58 PM]

@3:

Poor little ants. Why would we want to sting them?

[#7 posted by frankiez , January 14, 2009 2:31 PM]

I love "Seijin no Hi" but it puzzles me that a Japanese girl can make a bukkake adult video @18 but is declared adult @20... loli daneee...

[#8 posted by toxonix , January 14, 2009 3:13 PM]

20??? I was told that they were 'of age' way before 20.... perhaps I've said too much.

[#9 posted by jeshii , January 14, 2009 3:29 PM]

I hate to be that guy who does this, but...

I made a video about 成人式. Yay for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Cl50YXApg

Hope you enjoy.

(I wish I was Danny Choo... ;;)

[#10 posted by acurrie , January 15, 2009 2:16 AM]

Hey, I covered this on my blog three years ago:

http://tinyurl.com/7gh22s

Why no Boing Boing love? Oh right, the Stormtrooper thing ;-)

[#11 posted by Anonymous , January 15, 2009 7:06 AM]

The crazy part of this holiday is that those furisode (the type of kimono they are wearing) cost a ridiculous amount of money. I knew a girl who bought hers for the equivalent of roughly $7,000. And they only wear it once to take pictures in. Sure, you can rent them, but it's not "cool" if you do.