Historical Background

Bamboo skis were first invented for people who could not afford to buy authentic expensive skis. Ski was first imported into Japan around the Meiji period by an Austrian army named Lerch. He originally came to Niigata prefecture to inspect the Japanese armed forces, and during his mission, he taught how to ski to people there because he liked skiing and wanted to spread it. Thanks to his effort, people got to know about skiing, but skis at that time were too expensive for them to buy, so they could not enjoy skiing. As a less expensive alternative to them, therefore, some people started making them out of bamboo by themselves, and this is the origin of bamboo skis. 

Bamboo skis were used up until the middle of the Showa period, but they started fading away because of the stability problem and less amount of snow in Japan.