Jumbo tug-of-war in Okinawa
A traditional tug-of-war using the world's longest rice-straw rope was held on Sunday in Okinawa Prefecture.
The event is said to have started about 400 years ago in what was then the Ryukyu Dynasty. In those days, it was a national celebration.
The 200-meter long jumbo rope is 1-and-a-half meters in diameter and weighs 43 tons. It is said to be the world's largest rope made of rice-straw.
The event takes place in the middle of the main road running through Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture's capital city.
At the sound of a gong, people grasped the rope and started to pull from both ends.
The winner of the event is the side that pulls the rope 5 meters into its own end.
The rope hardly moved, though, and the battle ended in a draw, just as it did last year.
A visitor from Kyoto said it was a powerful display and he enjoyed it very much. Another participant, a local resident of Naha, said that while the contest ended in a draw he did his best and wanted to try again next year.
Around 270,000 people watched the spectacle.
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