By Kyung Hoon Kim TOKYO (Reuters) – When it comes to culture and entertainment, Japan has a rich history spanning ancient legends and sport to popular comics and video games. Now a new generation of inventors is drawing on this culture to create sports with a 21st-century twist — helping players feel “superhuman” through technology or other special equipment. The Superhuman Sports Society, a Tokyo-based group of researchers and game designers, has certified 12 new sports since its launch in 2015, including “HADO”, or “wave motion” in English. In “HADO”, players in head-mounted augmented-reality displays and arm band sensors dodge waves of light as they fire energy balls at each other in a virtual arena. The game is similar to the action seen in the “Dragon Ball” manga-animation franchise and “Street Fighter” video games. Some games are low tech such as “Rock Hand Battle”, in which each player wears an oversized arm and tries to knock off small rocks attached to an opponent’s “rock hand”. Noriya Kazami, 25, a cartoonist and an inventor of “Rock Hand Battle” (above), said she took inspiration from the legend of Mitsuishi (Three Rocks) and the Demon’s Handprint. She also created a comic book series based on the legend, in which a devil was tied to rocks and made to stop harassing the local people. The devil left a handprint on one of the rocks, making a “rock hand”. We asked other players for their thoughts on playing “Superhuman Sports”.
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