Naha Tug-of-War

One of the biggest events and festivals here in Okinawa is the legendary Naha tug-of-war and today was the auspicious occasion.  We went to this event last year with the whole family (and Grammie!), but this year Stevie was still feeling poorly and the kids were only too happy to have a reprieve from going so instead my neighbor, Kelly, and I went down by ourselves.

The contest is supposed to be a battle between residents of the east and west sides of Naha for bragging rights and a chance at good luck.  The tug-of-war actually dates back to the early 1600s under the Sho dynasty when Okinawa was in the Ryukyu Kingdom. The rope is made of rice straw, is about 600 feet long, has a diameter of about 4 1/2 feet, and weighs 43 tons. Thousands of people take part in the event - it's really quite something to behold!

The idea is that the rope is laid out on the central road of Okinawa - route 58 - in two halves. 

One half has the "female" end, and the other half has the "male" end with a distance of about 60 feet in between.  The crowd has to move each half 30 feet to the middle by pulling on smaller side ropes as the leaders standing on the rope call out "pull" (in Japanese, of course).  After getting the ropes close together, they are then thread together and a giant wooden pin is inserted to keep them together. 

Once that is accomplished, there is a theatrical reenactment of the kings of the east and the west meeting, followed by a staged "fight" between the kings and then the tug-of-war begins!

 Thousands of people all pulling like they're going to make the difference and eventually the rope either moves or they call time. 

At that point you can get up on the rope and cut off sections to take home as a souvenir!

Kelly, always taking pictures!

Since we were kid-less, we were able to get in really close to the rope and stood just a few feet from the central knot.  It was awesome!