Naha Great Tug-of-War Festival

The Naha Great Tug-of-War (Naha Otsunahiki) is held each year on the second Sunday of October along Kokusaidori, the main street of central Naha. It holds a Guinness World Record as the world’s largest tug-of-war, fought with a straw rope that measures approximately 200 metres in length, weighs around 40 tonnes, and is assembled from thousands of smaller plaited ropes contributed by participating communities. The main pull lasts just 30 minutes, but the processions, performances, and preparation activities extend throughout the day. Entry is free.

The History

Tug-of-war festivals have been held in Okinawa for approximately 600 years, originally tied to agricultural rituals for praying for good harvests and warding off disaster. Naha’s version dates to the Ryukyu Kingdom era and was revived in its current large-scale form in 1971. The rope divides the city into east (higashi) and west (nishi) teams. Tradition holds that if the east wins, the harvest will be good; if the west wins, commerce will flourish. In practice, a draw is considered an acceptable result and is declared if neither side prevails.

What to Expect

The main rope is assembled in sections from subsidiary ropes woven by community groups in the days before the festival. On the festival day, it is paraded down Kokusaidori in a procession featuring traditional Ryukyuan music, eisa drum dancing, and performances from local groups. The two main loops of the rope — male (o-nawa) and female (me-nawa) — are joined at the centre of the street to form the complete tug-of-war rope at around 3pm.

The pulling begins at approximately 3:30pm. An estimated 15,000-20,000 people crowd in to grab onto the subsidiary ropes attached along the main cable; for spectators not pulling, positions on the elevated pedestrian bridges along Kokusaidori give the best overhead view of the scale of the operation. After the pull ends, the rope is cut into sections by participants who take pieces home as good-luck charms for the year.

Getting There

Kokusaidori is the central street of Naha, a 10-minute walk from Naha Airport monorail’s Kencho-mae or Makishi stations. Naha is served by flights from Tokyo Haneda (approximately 2.5 hours), Osaka Kansai, and other major Japanese cities, as well as international routes from several East Asian cities. See our Okinawa guide for accommodation recommendations in central Naha.