Sports Anthropology Observation on the Hokkaido International ^Yukigassen^

Abstract

Sport event^Yukigassen^ was born in Sobetsu Hokkaido, Japan in 1989 and spread to China in 2016. It has become an of emerging winter sports in China, which was spread rapidly especially in North China and Northeast China. The form of ^Yukigassen^ is similar to the ^snowball^ game over the world winter folk tradition. Through the field investigation, it was found that the original ^Yukigassen^ was similar as the children^s ^snowballing^ game activity in Japan and other countries in winter. Yukigassen gradually formed sports events in the 1980s. It has been 30 years since its development, and it has become an international winter sports organization with participation of 10 countries. So far, in the Hokkaido region of Japan, in addition to skiing in winter, the ^Yukigassen^ has become another winter sports project favored by tourists at home and abroad. Currently, the Yukigassen event has formed two international organizations, which is International Alliance of sports Yukigassen (IAY). Since 2018, the international Yukigassen event has targeted its development goal towards competition event of Winter Olympics Games. Observations through the lens of sports anthropology. This thesis applies the fieldwork as the main method, and conducts several practical investigations in Hokkaido, Japan. The study analyzed the process of the emergence, development and dissemination of the game ^Snowball Fight^ from the perspectives of body culture, cultural identity, cultural communication, etc. The study further analyzes the significance of the development and popularization of winter sports activities through the international development of Yukigassen.

Keywords:

Topic: Sport and culture in Asian societies