0025 Gateball: the Shuffleboard of Japan

When it comes to Japanese sports, most people think sumo or karate, not . . . gateball. What is gateball anyway? Well, it’s a game not unlike croquet invented to address the lack of healthy recreation for Japanese youth. Back in 1947, rubber was expensive, but wood was cheap, so Suzuki Kazunobu came up with a game where players use mallets to knock wooden balls through gates. This slow-moving sport was a flop with the young, but was embraced by the elderly, becoming something of the shuffleboard of Japan. By the 1990s, it was so popular that the police became concerned over reports of white-haired gateballers forcing kids out of parks and fights between geriatric players. Japanese croquet clearly isn’t for sissies. #caes #hacker #japan #tsutsui