Games and Toys

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Games and Toys for the New Year

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: New Year
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation


New Year is a time for traditional games and traditional toys.

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hagoita battledore



Ball game (temari 手毬 (てまり)
with a decorative cotton ball
song for the ball game 手毬唄（てまりうた temari uta）

Ball game for kicking (kemari 蹴鞠初め)
a court ritual



Battledore, Shuttlecock (hagoita　羽子板)




Card Games (karuta 歌留多) hanafuda, uta karuta.
toranpu トランプ trupm and many more



coin-throwing game 穴一 (あないち) ana-ichi
..... ana ichi 穴市（あないち）
..... ana ichi zeni 穴一銭（あないちぜに）coin for ana-ichi
This game was quite popular in Edo around 1740. Young people played it. A hole the size of a coin was carved in the ground and then from a distance you throw a coin or small ball in it.


coin for the ana-ichi game


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good luck pulling 福引 (ふくびき) fukubiki
..... waraikuji 笑籤（わらいくじ）"laughing lottery"
This started in the Kamakura period. Two people would pull at one mochi and the one who got the larger part would be lucky in the New Year.

Now it has turned into a kind of lottery for the New Year business.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !


hoobiki 宝引 (ほうびき) "pulling a treasure"
..... takarabiki 宝引 （たからびき）
..... hoobiki nawa 宝引縄（ほうびきなわ）
tsuji hoobiki 辻宝引（つじほうびき）
ame hoobiki 飴宝引（あめほうびき） pulling for a sweet
doofuguri 胴ふぐり（どうふぐり）
hoobiki zeni 宝引銭（ほうびきぜに）coin

A kind of fukubiki that became popular during the Muromachi period. Many strings with just one of them holding a "treasure" were put out for drawing. The one who got the "treasure" had good luck in the New Year. The treasure was just a small toy or a mochi. It was alos done at the crossroads (tsuji hoobiki) and you had to pay some money (hoobiki zeni) to take your turn.



宝引き pulling your good luck



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gichoo 毬打 (ぎちょう ぎっちょう) gicho,
"old-type cricket game"
..... gichoo 毬杖（ぎちょう)
..... tamauchi, tama-uchi ）玉打（たまうち） "hitting the ball"
dakyuu 打毬（だきゅう

A toy with a wooden ball and a hammer with eight corners and a long handle to hit the ball. Two teams each on one side of the line play it. The ball is thrown in the air and has to be hit by the other team.
An old game since the Heian period. Since the Edo period, small versions of the tools have been used as decorations only.



buriburi 振振 (ぶりぶり) buriburi game
..... buriburi gichuu 振振毬打（ぶりぶりぎっちょう）buriburi hammer
..... bamaburi 玉振振（たまぶりぶり）buriburi ball
This is similar to gichuu, but only the hammer is now used as a decoration.
During the Edo period, paintings of doves or tortoise were painted on the hammer and children would pull it behind themselves along the ground.


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Fan-throwing competition
投扇興 ( とうせんきょう) toosenkyoo
toosen 投扇（とうせん）oogi nage 扇投（おうぎなげ）
Fan (oogi 扇　uchiwa　団扇）


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poppen, hoppen ぽっぺん glass ball plopping
..... pokon pokon ぽこんぽこん

A glass ball on a pipe with a very thin bottom had to be brought to make a plopping sound. This was heared as "hoppen"or "poppen" in Osaka, "pokon pokon" in Tokyo, "pekon pekon" in Kyushu.
The glass balls are also known as "biidoro ビードロ", from the Portugese vidro.

. . . CLICK here for VIDRO Photos !



Popen o fuku musume ポペンを吹く娘 Girl blowing a "Poppen" glass
喜多川歌麿 Kitagawa Utamaro

. Toys, Art and Craft from Nagasaki .


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Laughing, Lucky Laugh, fuku warai 福笑い (ふくわらい)
okametsuke おかめつけ


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"sixteen soldiers"
十六むさし (じゅうろくむさし)juuroku musashi
十六目石（じゅうろくむさし）
juuroku sasukari 十六さすかり（じゅうろくさすかり）
musashi sasukari むさしさすかり
Sixteen Musashi , Juroku Musashi

A board game with 16 pieces (warriors) and a central figure called Benkei (the Strong Monk).
Benkei must be pushed into a corner, where he can not move any more. But he has the power to topple the warrior stones as his defence.
This game was rather popular in the 17th century.
There are some famous woodblock prints with this theme.
Click the image to see some.



http://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/info/tosyo/no8.html

Kimono for a Kabuki play for the heroine Tachibana Princess
橘姫 / 妹背山婦女庭訓 Imoseyama onna teikin
When she meets her younger sister, they are not supposed to know each other and just can play a game of Juroku Musashi.

WKD
Musashibo Benkei 武蔵坊弁慶 Benkei, the Warrior-Monk from Musashi


Reference


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Spinning top, tops (koma 独楽（コマ）) Kreisel


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Sugoroku board with the IROHA alphabet


sugoroku 双六 (すごろく) Sugoroku board game
e sugoroku 絵双六（えすごろく）with pictures
kami sugoroku 紙双六（かみすごろく）
doochuu sugoroku 道中双六（どううちゅうすごろく）with pictures from the 53 stations of the Tokaido Road




quote
Sugoroku (双六) refers to two different forms of Japanese board game, one similar to western backgammon and the other similar to western Snakes and ladders. Sugoroku plays identically to backgammon (it even has the same starting position), except for the following differences:

Doubles are not special. If a player rolls doubles, each die still counts only once.
There is no "bearing off". The goal is to move all of one's men to within the last six spaces of the board.
There is no doubling cube.
It is not permitted to form a prime of six contiguous points to obstruct one's opponent.

The game is thought to have been introduced from China (where it was known as Shuanglu) into Japan in the sixth century. There are pictures and a cursory description of the rules at http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/11Kaleidoscope2118.html

It is known that in the centuries following the game's introduction into Japan it was made illegal several times, most prominently in 689 and 754. This is because the simple and luck-based nature of sugoroku made it an ideal gambling game. This version of sugoroku and records of playing for gambling continuously appeared until early Edo era. In early Edo-era, a new and quick gambling game called Hanchō (半丁) appeared and using sugoroku for gambling quickly dwindled.

This variant of the backgammon family has died out in most other countries, but it is still popular in Japan, partially due to a boost caused by the inclusion of a free Sugoroku board with the first issue of the newspaper Kingu (in 1925) which sold 740,000 copies.

A simpler sugoroku, with the similar rules as Snakes and ladders appeared as early as late 13th century and helped by the cheap and elaborate wooden block printing technology of Edo period, it became a popular game. Thousands of variations of boards were made with pictures and themes from religion, political, actors, and even adult material. In Meiji and later period, this variation of game remained popular often included as a game in kid-oriented magazines.

In 1968, Takara introduced Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム Jinsei Gēmu) as a Japanese version of The Game of Life and this became an instant hit by using a roulette instead of dice and by offering alternative goals beside quickly reaching the goal. This game was periodically updated introducing many timely topics and sold over 10 million sets to date. In the electric gaming genre, Momotaro Dentetsu series is the most popular computer sugoroku game in Japan.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU


ばらばらに花散る里や投扇興
barabara ni hana chiru sato ya toosenkyoo

scattered they fall,
the flowers of my hometown -
throwing fans competition

Ooshita Hideko 大下秀子


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そのむかし十六むさし争ひし
sono mukashi juuroku musashi arasoishi

in olden times
the sixteen soldiers
fought bravely

Takizawa Iyoji 瀧澤伊代次

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碁に弱く十六むさし強きかな
go ni yowaku juuroku musashi tsuyoki kana

bad at the Go game -
Sixteen Soldiers is
my strong game

Ikenouchi Takeshi 池内たけし


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双六の戻りて大井川越せず
sugoroku no modorite Ooigawa kosezu

playing Sugoroku
I have to go back
and can not cross River Oigawa

Ikeda Hidesui 池田秀水 (1933 - )


River Oigawa refers to the game of the 53 stations of the Tokaido road.
. . . CLICK here for Oigawa Photos !


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Related words

. Games and Toys in SPRING 　


. Games and Toys in SUMMER 　


. Games and Toys in AUTUMN 　

. Games and Toys in WINTER 　


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***** . NEW YEAR
KIGO for HUMANITY


. SAIJIKI - THE NEW YEAR

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