Bouldering, or sports climbing, will make its debut as an official Olympic event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The sport features competitive climbs up a wall that is dotted with handholds and footholds.
A growing number of people have installed bouldering walls at home to enjoy the sport.
There are special panels to which climbing holds can be attached. Colorful climbing holds can also make a room look bright.
Kenji Suzuki, a 43-year-old company employee who lives in Hodogaya Ward, Yokohama, installed a bouldering wall 2.6 meters high and 2 meters wide in his children's room on the second floor of his new house, completed in August.
Climbing holds of various shapes and colors such as red, blue and orange are affixed to a wall featuring wallpaper that looks like bare concrete.
His third daughter, Otoha, 11, got her first taste of bouldering by watching it on TV.
"I was interested in the sport. I thought it would make the room more fun," she said. At her urging, Suzuki asked Mitsui Home Co., a Tokyo-based housing company that designed and built his house, to install the bouldering wall.
In bouldering, competitors dangle from climbing holds on walls with their full weight, so it is dangerous to do the sport on an ordinary wall because handholds could come off or bend. Therefore, the builder said it made the wall thicker and stronger by attaching a foundation plate, to which handholds are installed.
After putting up the wallpaper, Suzuki put holes in the wall with an electric drill, and installed about 40 climbing holds he had purchased online. It cost about 30,000 yen (265 dollars) for 20 holds. He affixed each hold on the wall both with a bolt and a screw to ensure they would not budge.
Since the bouldering wall was installed, Otoha can easily exercise at home, and she also uses it to play with her friends.
"We make rules such as using blue handholds alone and do a time trial with my friends," Otoha said with a smile.
Kazuko Murakawa, an interior coordinator with the company, said, "In order to install a bouldering wall, what we should do is just reinforce a wall by attaching a foundation panel, so it's possible to install it in almost all new houses."
According to Hold-ya, a store based in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, that sells climbing holds, the number of people installing bouldering walls like the Suzukis at private residences has been increasing each year. The company receives about 100 orders a month.
There are two types of climbing holds: One is a bolt-on type that uses a bolt and a nut to fasten the climbing hold from both sides of the panel, and the other is a screw-on type that uses screws to fix the climbing holds.
The company recommends bolt-on type holds because they are easier to take out to switch positions. Special panels, each measuring 1.8 meters high and 0.9 meters wide, with holes and nuts on the back are also sold for 18,000 yen (excluding tax) apiece.
Options for existing walls
For existing walls of houses, there are a number of options that make it possible to install climbing holds, including renovating and putting up reinforced walls.
According to Hamamatsu-based K's Interior Co., when installing a bouldering wall by refurbishing a house, plaster boards and other materials should be removed from existing walls. Then, plywood should be installed to the walls for reinforcement and commercially available bouldering panels should be attached to the reinforced walls.
For a bouldering wall 2.4 meters high and 3.6 meters wide installed, the construction cost would be about 230,000 yen (excluding expenses for bolt-on type climbing holds).
Said Shinpei Sugino, in charge of construction management of the company: "Residential structures all differ, so we have to personalize the production for each individual customer. It's important to thoroughly discuss how to use a bouldering wall and create a foundation with adequate strength."
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