The International Sport of Japanese Snowball Fighting
Yukigassen: Japan’s Competitive Snowball Fighting
REPORTER:
With a practiced throw, a team of seven athletes hurls snowballs at their opponents in unison. In this northern corner of Japan, people have distilled the humble snowball fight into a proper sport, a serious test of athletic prowess that they hope will make it to the Olympics.
This is yukigassen — a contest where the rules are simple, but the execution is anything but. Teams of seven face off with a flag that needs protecting — but get tagged with a snowball in the process, and you’re out.
Just like dodgeball, you have three minutes and 90 snowballs. With that, you try to take out as many opponents as possible. The team with the most surviving players wins the set. It’s a best-of-three match, so the first team to win two sets is the winner. But if you manage to capture the other team’s flag, you win instantly.
To add to the challenge, team members can hide behind barriers, making the game a challenge of nimbleness and agility, as well as good aim. And teamwork and strategy can make or break victory.
I was playing back foot, meaning I was all the way in the back, in charge of supplying balls to the front, and since she was positioned in the middle, I made a point of coordinating with her as I sent the rounds forward.
Japan may not have invented the snowball fight, but it has perfected it. Referees analyze the barrage of snowballs to make sure there’s fair play, and even the snowballs are compacted into a standard size.
But how did yukigassen come about anyway? Well, the sport started amid a crisis here in the town of Sobetsu, Japan. The former hot spring town lost most of its tourism after a volcanic eruption in the 1970’s.
But when someone here saw visitors having a snowball fight, they got an idea: What if this game could be turned into something — something to bring the town’s fortunes back? Since 1989, Sobetsu has been Japan’s snowball-fighting capital. And the regulations born here are spreading internationally, raising hopes this sport could make it big.
It’s widespread in Finland and in parts of Europe: Thirteen countries play under the same rules. In that context, the idea came naturally for us to see it as a potential Olympic sport.
Once the snowy battlefield is cleared, it’s time for celebration — and sportsmanship. Another well-played match of this Japanese town’s special sport.
