SAPPORO, Japan, Feb 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Every year, tens of thousands of
tourists flock to the snow festival in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo,
attracted by some 200 large, but intricate ice sculptures.
But this year, there’s a problem: no snow.
With high temperatures that festival-goers put down to climate change,
organisers were forced to truck in powder from distant towns for their
signature sculptures in an unheard-of ice crisis.
“This lack of snow is unprecedented,” said Yumato Sato, an official in
charge of organising the snow festival, which normally uses 30,000 tonnes of
the stuff for sculptures ranging from anime characters to famous racehorses.
“We had to bring in snow from places we had never reached out to before”
such as Niseko, a town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) away from Sapporo
famous for its skiing, he said.
Adding to the problem was the need for pristine snow, perfect for
sculpting.
“The snow needs to be free of dirt, otherwise the sculptures can break
up,” he said.
“We barely managed to scrape together enough snow.”
Record low snowfall in Japan this year has also forced many ski resorts to
shut their pistes. According to Weathernews, one quarter of the 400 resorts
surveyed had been unable to operate.
There has been a knock-on effect on one of the snow festival’s main
attractions — a 100-metre-long, 10-metre-high slide — that had to be
reduced in size.
– ‘Once before I die’ –
Snowfall in Sapporo has been less than half the annual average, according
to the Japan Meterological Agency’s local observatory. High temperatures
melted the snow in mid-December and the mercury is expected to stay above
average.
This posed a major challenge for the 125 local Self-Defense Forces troops
who painstakingly construct the sculptures each year that can be as high as
15 metres, according to commanding officer Colonel Minoru Suzuki.
“Due to record warm weather this year, we didn’t have much snow and the
snow contained more water which made the statues melt easily,” Suzuki told
AFP.
His troops spent about 100 days planning and building a 15-metre tall, 20-
metre wide statue modelled on the palace at Lazienki Park in Warsaw to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of Japanese-Polish diplomatic relations in
2019.
“We had to keep repairing the statue so we struggled. It was difficult to
attach parts because it was so warm,” he added.
The festival has been running for 70 years and is a major tourist magnet,
drawing 2.7 million visitors last year.
Sunao Kinoshita, a 75-year-old who had travelled up from near Osaka, said
he “had to see it once before I die”.
“Northern Japanese cities have been hosting snow festivals every year. It
would be a shame if such events ended” due to global warming, he said.
A regular festival-goer from the region also laid the blame on global
warming. “I was worried the climate was different this year,” Ayaka Muto, 31,
told AFP.
“Usually we have more snow. I think it’s strange. I feel global warming is
happening,” added Muto.
– ‘Serious and a disaster’ –
The main theme of this year’s festival, which runs until February 11, is
the ethnic Ainu minority in Hokkaido, as the first Ainu-themed national
museum, nicknamed Upopoy or “singing together” in the Ainu language, will
open in April.
“We’ve never before had statues with such powerful Ainu characteristics,”
Sato said.
One statue featured a giant Blakiston’s fish owl spreading its wings
watching over sculptures of the museum and a ship. The owl is considered a
god in Ainu culture.
Another statue was based on the Ainu myth of a thunder god and a forest
princess.
And some have been turning to the nature gods of Japan’s native Shinto
religion to pray for more snow.
In mid-January, a ski resort in western Hyogo prefecture invited a Shinto
priest to hold a ceremony to ask the gods for snow, as did the organisers of
the Yamagata snow festival in northern Japan.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough snow. We don’t have snow at all. It’s
serious and it’s a disaster,” Hyogo Governor Toshizo Ido told reporters last
month.
The Sapporo festival organisers hope they can continue the famed event in
the future despite the warming climate.
“This year marked the 71st event. It’s a festival that we want to carry on
for future generations,” Sato said.
“(But) this is about weather so all we can do is to pray.”