This study aimed to clarify the reality of skiing for the public in the late Taisho period to early Showa period with the magazine Asahi Sports as a main historical material. The contents clarified through this study can be categorized into the followings:
(1) The Ski movie of Hannes Schneider is an Austrian ski instructor starring transformed general ski techniques in Japan into ones for general skiers to acquire more easily.
(2) Other purposes of skiing for most city-dwellers were to escape from the bustle of the city and stay in the nature. However, there were many cases where people brought their senses directly to the ski resort because of the increasing number of skiers from cities.
(3) The increasing number of woman skiers contributed to the culture of sports for family, and sports become a part of family life. Also, woman were less actively participating in sports at that time, but journalisms responded positively to the female skiers and frequently covered it.
(4) For ski styles, various proper names were used other than main ones such as “ski mountaineering,” “ski tour,” and“ slop ski,” but their actual contents belonged to one of the three styles above.
(5) Ski mountaineers consisted of former mountaineers and skiers. For skiers, this style was the most difficult one except competitions. Also, the first priority was placed on reaching the summit as the purpose.
(6) Ski tours were sometimes confused with ski mountaineering, but the purpose of the ski tour was to walk in the fields while the background of ski mountaineering was mountaineering, so the ski tours were done irrespective of the heights of mountains or the angles of the slopes.
(7) Slope skis, due to many ski resorts easily accessible from each city, had some factors as an entrance for new skiers, so ski resorts were increasingly popular in the early Showa period.
