Pillow fighting used to be a fun game played during children’s sleepovers. But in Japan, pillow fighting has officially been a competitive sport.
Yes, you’ve heard it right.
In fact, the combative sport had about 500 participants a year.
Every February, a pillow fight competition, called “All-Japan Pillow Fight Competition,” is held in Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture.
How did it come about?
Pillow fights were commonly played by students getting ready for bed on school trips in Japan. The students will spread out across a room, wait for their teacher and suddenly erupt into pillow fights. It has since been developed into a competition and now, is being organized by the Ito city government and the Ito City Tourist Association annually since 2013.
What You Need to Know
Only an officially-recognized pillow, implemented by the All Japan Pillow Fighting Association can be used in this sport. It costs around 3,150 yen. The pillow was exclusively made for pillow throwing. It is made out of latex and has no plaster or any sharp item that may cause injury. It also has moderate weight making it easy to throw through long distances. The gray and white patterns wer also incorporated in the design so that it’s easily recognized at a distance.
A fee of 2,000 yen is to be paid by every team in order to enter the competition. And being an official sport, the winning team gets to go home with 100,000 yen as their prize.
Let’s Play!
The rules are based on those made by students of Ito High School. Each side is comprised of five, all in yukatas or the Japanese traditional summer outfit. Each member has their own roles to play. There is the captain and the group of players, which includes a libero, who uses futons as shields, and support players.
Everyone gets to their starting position: the “sleeping” stance in futons. When the game commences with the sound of a referee’s whistle, players will jump out and start throwing pillows at their opponents.
Once a player gets hit by a pillow, they can no longer participate in the game and must go to a futon outside the court. But if the captain gets hit, then the set is over. Alertness is key since a player is not allowed to catch the pillow, only dodge from it.
Out of nowhere, one side will shout “The teacher is coming” which indicates that the opposing team should go to their starting positions – sleeping in futons for 10 seconds. The team who used “The teacher is coming” rule is given 10 seconds to move around and fetch pillows from the opponent’s side of the court.
One set lasts two minutes and the team to conquer two sets wins the competition.
It’s basically dodge ball with softer weapons.
Sources:
Banner photo by Christopher Michel, from Wikipedia Commons
Login with Google