Japan No. 1 in ice art
Published 7:42 pm Sunday, March 11, 2012
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A four-member Japanese team led by Junichi Nakamara is the winner of the 2012 BP World Ice Art Championships Multi Block Classic.
The team’s work is titled “Prickly Reception” and shows a porcupine with its quills arched facing a prowling leopard.
The 132-hour competition ended Friday night. Awards were handed out Saturday night.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that 19 teams of two to four sculptors for six days used chain saws, chisels, drills, hairdryers, irons and handmade tools to hew forms from 4-by-6-by-3-foot blocks of ice.
Each team could use up to 10 blocks. Heavy equipment operators were on hand to lift them into place.
