Remembering back to my own playground days, with the exception of kickball, every game we played was made all the better with a potentially hazardous twist, from Red Rover to dodgeball to 500, and we see that spirit’s still alive and well in Japan.
Bo-taoshi … is a capture-the-flag-like game, played on sports days at schools in Japan. The game played by cadets at the National Defense Academy of Japan traditionally on its anniversary is famous for its size, wherein two teams of 150 individuals each vie for control of a single large pole.[1] Each team is split into two groups of 75 attackers and 75 defenders. The defenders begin in a defensive orientation respective to their own pole, while the attackers assume position some measure away from the other team’s pole. A team is victorious if it is able to lower the pole of the opposing team (which begins perpendicular to the ground) to a thirty-degree angle (respective to the ground), before the other team reaches this goal.
Not every school includes a Ninja sitting atop the pole trying to keep it up, but how many of you would have volunteered for that position?
Watch the video here:
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