With even senior citizens finding better things to do than play gateball, a union for the sport is hoping that a manga about a miniskirted high school girl who loves the game will generate renewed interest.
For decades, the Japanese-style of croquet has been the purview of the elderly. But today's aging baby boomers, with lots more choices about how to spend their spare time than previous generations, have shown little interest in tapping a ball around a court.
Undaunted, the Japan Gateball Union (JGU), based in Tokyo, has been looking for ways to encourage younger people to take up a mallet, even giving grants to establish new clubs.
But nothing has worked the way "Gate Girl" has.
The serialized manga, which has appeared irregularly in Nihonbungeisha Co.'s monthly Bessatsu Manga Goraku comic magazine since last November, is all about a high school girl who is keen to play competitive gateball.
The main character is a first-year senior high school student who is good at any sport. Of course, she looks cute in her miniskirted uniform, too.
At first, she ridicules the game, which she says is just for old fogies. But when she discovers that there is a gateball prodigy at a rival high school, her competitive instincts kick in and she organizes a team.
Manga author Kazushi Hinoki, 41, was a complete stranger to the game before he began his series.
He was amazed to see high school girls playing at the national junior gateball competition in Saitama Prefecture last summer.
The avid cheering from players and spectators alike, even when the players didn't do well, impressed Hinoki. The winning team was in tears of joy when it won the championship, hugging each other with abandon.
Some girls had even written "You can do it if you try" on their arms to keep themselves going.
"I had no idea that gateball could be so exciting," Hinoki said.
That's when he got the idea for the manga.
JGU loved the concept.
"We hope the manga will help cultivate a new generation (of gateball players)," an official said.
According to the union, about 570,000 members played the game in fiscal 1996, the year the group started compiling statistics. By fiscal 2009, the figure had dropped to about 210,000.
That's mainly due to the sport's image as a game for the aged. Baby boomers shun the sport. Besides, players who make mistakes sometimes are criticized by their teammates, and so they drop out.
The gateball union has made efforts to attract young players. Since fiscal 2002, it has been funding gateball clubs or circles at senior high schools.
Initially, the union provided 1 million yen ($12,045) in grants per school every two years. But financial difficulties and other problems led the union in fiscal 2010 to cut that to 600,000 yen per school over a three-year period.
To date, the program has been extended to 34 schools.
One is Izumo Nishi Senior High School in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture.
The school's gateball club was formed in 2007 and has a membership of 22 students, both male and female.
In 2010, the club nabbed third place at the senior high school girls' section of the national junior competition after battling it out against 14 other teams. A total of 64 senior high school teams with 460 players from Tokyo and 27 prefectures took part.
"Compared with soccer and tennis, (gateball) is a pretty minor sport," Yoshiteru Ishikawa, a teacher and club adviser, said. He brought in a copy of "Gate Girl" to his school's clubroom. "I hope it motivates the students," he said.
Some players like the strategy involved. "The best part (of gateball) is that we collaborate with teammates to think ahead of the opponents and make tactical moves," said third-year student Madoka Sanuki, 18.