Cosplay

**Cosplay**, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called **cosplayers** wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, television series, and video games. The term is composed of the two aforementioned counterparts – costume and role play.

Cosplay grew out of the practice of fan costuming at science fiction conventions, beginning with Morojo's "futuristicostumes" created for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention held in New York City in 1939. The Japanese term "cosplay" (コスプレ, *kosupure*) was coined in 1984. A rapid growth in the number of people cosplaying as a hobby since the 1990s has made the phenomenon a significant aspect of popular culture in Japan, as well as in other parts of East Asia and in the Western world. Cosplay events are common features of fan conventions, and today there are many dedicated conventions and competitions, as well as social networks, websites, and other forms of media centered on cosplay activities. Cosplay is very popular among all genders, and it is not unusual to see crossplay, also referred to as gender-bending.

## In Kawagoeland

In Kawagoeland, the responsible authority for cosplay is through every cosplay association each state of Kawagoeland (such as State of Hakone Cosplay Council).

As Kawagoeland has a long tradition of Halloween costumes, anime cosplay in Kawagoeland has its roots in October 1965. The Magical Girl Club from Halloween 1967 has a do-it-yourself cosplay on Sally the Witch's main character, Sally Yumeno. The oldest photo of anime cosplay is dated 31 October 1972, which shows the photo of a 13-year-old girl cosplaying as Akko-chan from *Himitsu no Akko-chan* in Hakone, Kawagoeland.

 File:NO COSTUMES sign - KGL.png
In contrast to Japan, the wearing of costumes in public is more accepted in Kawagoeland, but however, every state's Cosplay Association explicitly forbids persons from wearing cosplay in designated areas that are signed by double yellow lines present in the footpath or road signs meaning "no costumes", "no masks or costumes" and "no pedestrians". For the former two, these road signs are erected in areas that are too dangerous to trick-or-treat on Halloween, or to do dress-up in Carnival, due to multiple fatal incidents in the area over the years. Similar systems have been adopted by two other countries with long traditions of Halloween: Enchancia and Meridaland.

### Yellow lines

In Hakone, yellow lines present in the footpath indicate restrictions on dressing up in the area. A single yellow line means that children are not encouraged to trick-or-treat on Halloween, a double yellow line means no costumes in this area, and a broken yellow means no costumes on Halloween.

In response to the poisoned sweets story in the 1970s, Hakone began to use single yellow lines. The first one was installed in Tatsuga Street.