Japanese snowball fight game of yukigassen has designs on becoming an Olympic sport
Advocate for 37-year-old team sport says that ‘long before skating or skiing, humans were already throwing snowballs at each other’
At the foot of an active volcano in northern Japan, shouts ring out, competitors size each other up and snowballs whistle through the air in a very serious game of yukigassen – a sport with Olympic dreams.
The competition taking place this weekend is held every year in Sobetsu, a town on the main northern island of Hokkaido, where this game, essentially a snowball fight, became a sport 37 years ago.
On the field, brute strength is not enough. Japan’s yukigassen federation emphasises the “mental challenge” posed by the game, in which players on both teams pelt their opponents while taking cover behind shelters.
The goal: hit all seven players on the opposing team using perfectly spherical snowballs made with a special machine, or capture their flag.
“When you get hit, it hurts, but it’s mostly your pride that takes the blow,” said Toshihiro Takahashi, a 48-year-old civil servant dripping with sweat after his match.
The idea of turning yukigassen into a sport was born out of a crisis in Sobetsu.