雪月花 ”Setsugekka” (雪snow 月moon 花flower) …is one of those elegant Japanese expressions that succinctly describes the beautiful scenery of the four seasons.
Japan is an island nation that stretches 3,000 km from north to south and with its own dramatic set of climate conditions. From sweltering tropical summer days to freezing subarctic ones, and of course, all the pleasant in-betweens, making it, seasonally speaking, a most unique land.
Our humid high summers experience barrages of typhoons that bookend the season at both the start as well as the end, generating high winds and rough seas. While our dry winters are clouded over, all the while sucking up ocean water from the Sea of Japan hurling the vapour up high into the stratosphere to let it solidify and finally deposit as a plentiful blanket of snow over more than half of the country, which, as you can imagine makes for a massive snowfall zone. The areas on the Sea of Japan side of Honshu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido are the ones that cop the lot, an abundance of snow, especially by world-class standards. No surprise then when you compare the annual snowfall in populated cities of 100,000 or more globally, Japan has four that are ranked in the top ten. The Japanese, who have decided to live in these diverse and environmentally drastic environments, have built up some very unique values.
Nature occasionally bares her fangs at man.
The right amount of fear and confrontation with nature will heighten man’s awareness and enables him to evolve.
Born out of these harsh conditions came a uniquely Japanese culture. Called “Snow Surf.” It has for decades been refining and defining on its continued course of evolution, along the way it has developed its own culture notoriety, at home as well as worldwide.
DEUS POWDERTOOLS snowboards were launched in 2014 in collaboration with surfboard builder Takuya “TAPPY” Yoshikawa. We saw it then as we do now, as our addition to this philosophy progression. Ever since that first season, the Deus crew make their annual mountain pilgrimages to once again connect with our snow people, their mountains and while morally speaking its not the most important aspect of the trip, it is the driving force behind it, we go there to test the new season’s quiver of snow boards.
Our recent trip took us to the far north of Honshu, to the peaks of Iwate where we spent our days on a profusion of excursions, of uphill treks and of course the benefits, down again on some absolutely outstanding slides with our friends on their mountainsides.
We thank them for their indulgence, friendship and wit. For the rest of you, here are some images and video we hope you’ll enjoy.
https://vimeo.com/495904954
雪月花
(岩手トリップ2019)
南北3000kmに渡る島国日本は、世界でも珍しく熱帯から亜寒帯を含み、夏は台風が襲い海は荒れ、 冬は日本海の水を吸い上た雲が雪を降らし、国土の半分以上で雪が降り豪雪地となる。
人口10万人以上の都市の年間降雪量を比較すると、トップ10に日本の都市が4か所もランクインするのだとか。
日本海側の本州や東北、北海道などの地域は、世界的に見ても積雪の多いエリアだ。そんな厳しい環境で生きることを決めた民族である日本人は、独特な価値観を築いてきた。DEUS POWDER TOOLSは17FWより”街から山へ”をコンセプトにアパレルコレクションを展開している 。もともとの始まりは2014年、
サーフボードビルダーであるTAKUYA ”tappy” YOSHIKAWAと共同でのオリジナルスノーボードの開発からスタート。それ以降、日本固有のカルチャーで有り独自の発展を遂げてきた “snow surf “はDEUS JAPANより世界に発信されている。
時に人々に牙を向くこともある自然。
自然を正しく恐れ、対峙することは、様々な気付きを与えてくれ、進化を生じさせる。
“雪月花” 四季折々の美しい景色を表す、とても素敵な言葉がある様に…
Snow Board designs by Takuya Tappy Yoshikawa
All photos by Atsuo Itakura
Film Director: Danny Kern
Film Edit: Tom W Carey
