The family and I went into Naha to attend the 37th Annual Naha Giant Tug of War, or O-tsunahiki in Japanese. The news says there were roughly 280,000 people at the event.
The record-breaking rope, made of rice straw is constructed and made larger every year on Okinawa. It is supposedly the Guinness World Record largest rope of natural materials and it has been for something like ten years.
Since we live east of Naha, I decided we should probably pull for the East side.
Briana and I went out and found a spot near the point where the two ropes are joined together. We first had to pull our half of the rope to the center of the intersection where it was connected to the western rope.
The ropes two sections symbolize the union of male and female, or the east and west sides of Naha. Each half of the rope is 300 feet long and weighs 21-tons. The ropes are pinned in the middle by a 6-foot wooden dowel called the Kanuchi pole.
Smaller hand ropes are attached to the giant rope, and the crowd uses them to pull the giant rope.
The rules are simple; the first side to pull the rope three meters (about ten feet) wins. If, after thirty minutes no one pulls the rope the required 3 meters, a tie is declared. I was told the two years previous, the competition ended in a tie.
An article I read in the Stars and Stripes said there were about 15,000 people pulling on the east side. You would think with that much muscle, the rope would move fairly easily. You would be wrong. I imagine there were 15,000 people on the other side as well.
I pulled on that rope for almost thirty minutes. Amazingly, Briana stayed out there for at least 20 minutes before she could no longer stand the crush of bodies. When the final whistle blew, I thought we had tied, but this year, the east side won. Our side of the rope went nuts, cheering and yelling. Then, even before the celebratory screams and yelling died down, the rope was being dissected by knife wielding tuggers. Everyone was scrambling to get a piece of the rope.
They say it’s good luck to have a piece of the rope. We have three large pieces just to ensure we remain lucky.
cool. Did the rope actually move?
Posted by: Sweet Dreams | 10/18/2007 at 07:52 PM
Yes. The rope would move in short bursts of four to six inches. When it did move, the movement would sent a charge of enthusiasm through the tuggers heaving on both sides of the Eastern rope. The tug masters on the rope would blow their whistles, "tweet, tweet", then we'd pull and yell, "yeahh"! "Tweet, tweet YEAHH, Tweet, tweet, YEAHH"! After about 12 to 18 inches of movement, the Western team would regain their strength and stop our progress. This process would repeat for thirty minutes until we finally muscled the rope the ten feet needed for our side to win the competition. It was a fantastic and memorable experience.
Posted by: kawetijoru | 10/19/2007 at 05:20 AM