The 76th Sapporo Snow Festival, a winter festival in Hokkaido that attracts over 2 million visitors every year, kicked off on February 4th (running until February 11th). A large snow sculpture, "The Return of Silver Star Wars Snow Sculpture," was unveiled at the 10th block of the main street venue. This is the fourth time a Star Wars snow sculpture has been created at the Snow Festival, following 2015, 2017, and 2019, and the first in seven years since "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019). Tomonari Yoshikawa, leader of the production team involved in the third Star Wars snow sculpture creation since 2017, spoke about the challenges of the production and highlights of the sculpture.
◇The large snow sculpture was made with 2,500 tons of snow and was created by a total of 900 people.
The newly created "Star Wars Return of the Silver Snow Sculpture" is a large sculpture measuring 20 meters wide, 13 meters high, and 15 meters deep, featuring the Mandalorian and Grogu. It recreates the scene of the two of them riding an AT-RT (bipedal walker) and running through the streets.
On February 3rd, the day before the opening, two "Star Wars Ambassadors," actor Yuto Nakajima, who is known to be a huge Star Wars fan, and astronaut Soichi Noguchi, rushed to the site to hold the unveiling ceremony.
Yoshikawa, who was in charge of leading the production team for this large snow sculpture, is currently 51 years old. He has been in charge of the team since he was 41 or 42 years old, and has been in this position for 10 years.
Yoshikawa first heard about this project around September or October of last year. With the design officially approved and supervised by Lucasfilm, he began creating a model from the blueprints, "while also holding meetings to discuss what could and could not be done."
This year, snow began piling up on January 7th. 250 10-ton truck loads of snow were brought in for this snow sculpture. Scaffolding was set up and the snow was pushed in with heavy machinery. After the snow was piled up on the 13th, work began on carving it out of the blocks on the 15th. The sculpture was completed on February 1st. A total of 900 people were involved in the actual work of building the snow sculpture.
◇Lucasfilm said, "Make Grogu as cute as possible"
Regarding creating the "Star Wars Snow Sculpture of Silver Star Wars Return," which is his third Star Wars snow sculpture as captain, Yoshikawa said, "It's a famous movie, and there are a lot of fans around me, so I feel a sense of responsibility. After all, I can't make anything strange, and I thought that once it was finished, it would be something that many people would be happy with, so I put my heart and soul into creating it."
This time, instead of familiar Star Wars characters, he worked on statues of the new characters, the Mandalorian and Grogu, but even though they are new characters, it wasn't that difficult to create something that matched their respective characteristics. Yoshikawa revealed that the difficulty this time was that "the design (such as the direction of the face) had various angles, and (roughly speaking) there were three axes that were misaligned, which made it difficult."
The building also features lighting effects, and he said, "We took the lighting angle into consideration when we built it. We received a lot of supervision (from Lucasfilm) when we first made the model, and we built it according to their instructions."
"It took quite a while to decide how to arrange the first axis. When you're making a model, you can see the size with your eyes and see how it should look, but with a big lump of snow, you can't change the shape right away, so once you've decided on it, you have no choice but to go with it, so we made it very carefully."
He also said, "This time, Lucasfilm told us they wanted to make the character Grogu look as cute as possible, so we received a lot of advice and made some fine adjustments to create a cute character."
Upon seeing the finished product, he seemed pleased with the result, saying, "I think I did a good job. I think it turned out beautifully."
Finally, as a highlight of the film, he sent a message saying, "Each character is large and impressive, so I hope that viewers will feel that impact. Grogu's cuteness is also a point, so I hope that viewers will pay attention to that as well."
The 76th Sapporo Snow Festival will run until February 11th. During the festival, the "Return of the Silver Star Wars Snow Sculpture" will also feature a mechanism where you can enjoy three different patterns of fantastical lighting shows by pressing a button installed at the venue.
The film "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu" is set five years after the death of Darth Vader and the collapse of the Empire. The ruthless, lone bounty hunter "The Mandalorian" accepts a job to deliver Grogu, also known as "The Child," alive and said to possess great Force powers and change the world, to his client. In exchange for a large reward, he initially hands Grogu over, but then senses a mysterious connection and breaks the rules to recapture Grogu. During their journey, the two gradually develop a bond like that of father and son. However, they are pursued by remnants of the old Imperial Army, who want to obtain Grogu's powers... This is the story. The film will be released simultaneously in Japan and the US on May 22, 2026. (Naoko Hosoda/MANTAN)
