Japan History and Culture

Japanese badminton (Hanetsuki)

Hanetsuki is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badminton, played without a net, and is played with a wooden paddle called hagoita and a shuttlecock called hane and is made from colorful feathers. This game is a young girls game that is played at New Years.

The game can be played in two fashions, by one person attempting to keep the shuttlecock aloft as long as possible, or by the two people batting it back and forth. Girls who fail to hit the shuttlecock get marked on the face with India Ink by a stroke of a brush. While the game’s popularity has declined in recent times, beautifully ornamented hagoita are still a popular collection item, it has since become a custom to give a hagoita as a gift to celebrate the birth of a girl.

Japanese Beckoning Cat (Maneki Neko)

 An old Japanese tradition, the Maneki Neko has become a popular collector’s item all over the globe.

The Maneki Neko (literally “Beckoning Cat”; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat or Fortune Cat) is a Japanese sculpture often made of ceramic believed to give good luck to the owner. Often used in businesses– A raised left paw attracts customers while a raised right paw supposedly attracts money. The sculpture depicts a cat beckoning with an upright paw, and is usually displayed in restaurants and shops. The sculpture is based on the Japanese Bobtail cat breed.

Maneki Neko come in different colors, styles, and degrees of ornateness. In addition to sculptures, Maneki Neko can be found as keychai s, piggy banks, air fresheners, and miscellaneous ornaments. 

The Many Varities Of The Maneki Neko. 

Each color of the Maneki Neko  has a different meaning.
 

Tricolor Maneki Neko: The background is white with random black spots ringed with orange. This coloring is considered especially lucky and is the most popular color.

White Maneki Neko: White cats indicate purity and are the second most popular type.

Black Maneki Neko: Black Maneki Neko are believed to keep away evil and are especially popular with women.

 Pink Maneki Neko: A newly popular color, pink Maneki Neko cats are associated with attracting love.

Red Maneki Neko: Red is a protective color and is believed to ward off evil spirits and illness.

 
Gold Maneki Neko: Associated with wealth.

Purple Maneki Neko: Sweet Dreams and is believed to Brings artistic strength.

 

Green Maneki Neko: Believed to bring academic achievement.

Japanese Good-luck charm (Omamori)

Omamori are Japanese amulets dedicated to particular Shinto deities as well as Buddhist figures. and the Japanese people believe that omamori is a charm that protects the holder and gives good luck. literally, the word mamori means to “protect” or “defend”, with omamori meaning “honorable protector”. Originally omamori were kept in small bamboo tubes or worn around the neck.

Nowadays Omamori are small pieces of paper or fabric packets or small bags (omamori bukuro) ritually consecrated in the temple. They are typically made with the name of the originating temple on the front and a charm on the back for prosperity, health, travel, or a multitude of other purposes. Generic omamori exist, but most of them cover a single area: health, love, or studies, to name only a few. More recently it has become popular for stores in Japan to feature generic omamori with popular characters such as Mickey Mouse, Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Kewpie, etc.

Amulets do not expire, but it is common practice to replace them, usually once a year. Old omamori are usually returned to the shrine or temple to be burned.

Some popular omamori are:

• Kanai Anzen - For good health and help with illness.
• Koutsu Anzen - Protection for drivers and travelers of all sorts.
• Emmusubi - Available for singles and couples to ensure love and marriage.
• Anzan - Protection for pregnant women during term and to ensure a safe and easy delivery.
• Gakugyojoju - for students and scholars.
• Shobaihanjo - Success in business and matters of money.

Japanese rain doll (Teru teru bozu)

Teru teru bozu is traditional handmade doll that is made of tissue paper or clothes and a string and hang them from the eaves or in front of a window to wish for sunny weather. Japanese believed to have magical powers to bring good weather and to stop or prevent a rainy day.
Teru in Japanese means “sun shine” or “(weather) be fine” and a “bōzu” is Buddhist monk. literal translation of Teru teru bozu is the shining shining Buddhist monk. therefore, is a monk sending your message to heaven.

Materials

2 sheets of tissue papers or clothes

How to Make a Teru Teru Bozu

1.Get two pieces of tissue paper and a piece of string. Crumble a sheet of tissue paper.

2. Crumple one tissue into a ball, Put the crumbled tissue paper at the center of the other tissue.

3.Wrap the ball with the tissue.

4. Tighten the flat tissue around the ball, tie it up.

5. Hang your teru-teru bozu outside a window a few days before the day you want the sun to shine.

The teru teru bozu’s song.

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Itsuka no yume no sora no yo ni
Haretara kin no suzu ageyo
–
Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Watashi no negai wo kiita nara
Amai o-sake wo tanto nomasho
–
Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Ashita tenki ni shite o-kure
Sore de mo kumotte naitetara
Sonata no kubi wo chon to kiru zo

Translation:

Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
Like the sky in a dream sometime
If it’s sunny I’ll give you a golden bell
–
Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
If you make my wish come true
We’ll drink lots of sweet booze
–
Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu
Do make tomorrow a sunny day
but if it’s cloudy and I find you crying
Then I shall chop your head off

Japanese card game (Karuta game)

Karuta is a game traditionally played by the Japanese during the New Year holidays. There are two variations of the game, Irohagaruta and Hyakunin-ishu. Both of these are played with two decks of cards.

One of the decks has pictures on it; the other has sayings and phrases or poems. Irohagaruta, Japanese alphabet cards, number ninety-two. Irohagaruta is most frequently played by children while Hyakunin-ishu is an adult version of Karuta. Hyakunin means “one hundred people” and ishu means “one poem”. These words refer to the one hundred poems penned by Japanese poets during the seventh and eighth centuries.

Each year master Hyakunin-ishu players gather to test their memory skills in a national competition held on New Year’s Day. This eventhas helped make Hyakunin-ishu a type of national game among the Japanese.

The directions that follow are for making and playing an American adaptation of Irohagaruta, the children’s version of Karuta.

Making a Karuta Game

Using Japanese and/or American proverbs, make two decks of cards with 15 cards in each deck. There will be 15 pictures to illustrate the 15 proverbs (kotowaza). Cards can be the size of regular American cards or bigger. On one set of cards copy the proverbs. This will be the deck the reader uses. The picture cards will have to be drawn to illustrate each of the proverbs
(kotowaza).

Game Rules

1. A minimum of three people is necessary to play the game.
2. Players must remain quiet throughout the game so that everyone can hear the reader.
3. Players must keep their hands folded in their laps unless they are touching or reaching for a picture.
4. If a player touches the wrong picture card after the reader has read the card, then that player automatically loses any further chances for that round.

Playing the Game

1. Select the reader for the game.
2. The reader spreads out the picture cards face up.
3. The reader mixes the word cards and then reads one card.
4. The player who first finds and touches the corresponding picture card gets to keep both cards.
5. The game continues until all the picture cards have been retrieved.
6. The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.

Hakata dolls

Hakata dolls are clay dolls manufactured in Fukuoka Prefecture,which lies in the north of the island of Kyushu.The dolls are made from clay found near Fukuoka City. Clay is carved and sculptured to make an original doll. The original doll is molded in plaster and clay is put into the plaster cast to make the same ones as the original doll.

The dolls are removed, dried, fired unglazed and then painted for final finishing. One striking characteristic of the dolls is the uniquely smooth transparent feeling of the white skin. Since a single artisan carries out the whole process from carving and sculpturing to final finishing, each doll reflects the individual creativity of its maker, thus producing such a high level of artistry and a diverse range of works.

In a way that mass production could never match, each carefully hand-crafted doll is endowed with its own life. Also, this process allows friendly, personal service whereby a customer can request a doll with a kimono pattern that represents their own wearing, for example. This is one of the reasons for the enduring popularity of Hakata dolls.

Kokeshi dolls

Kokeshi is manufactured and sold in most tourist area in Japan. They have come to symbolize Japan to people around the world. Kokeshi doll was first made in the Tohoku region of northern provinces of Japan about 150 years ago and Traditional Kokeshi dolls are now made only in the Tohoku area. There are many places in the Tohoku area where Kokeshi dolls are made as a special product of the region, and Tsuchiyu is one of such place. it was orginally made as a toy for children of country farmers.

Kokeshi dolls are simply shaped, wooden dolls from Northern Honshu. Kokeshi dolls have neither arms nor legs, but a large sphere head and a cylindrical body. Kokeshi dolls are usually painted in bright floral kimono designs, or in other simple traditional patterns. From a simple toy for children, Kokeshi doll is now recognized as one of the tradtional folk arts in Japan. Our Kokeshi dolls are handmade entirely by modern skilled artists in Japan.

Daruma dolls (Bodhidharma)
Daruma dolls are symbols of good luck, hope and optimism.

Daruma is short for Bodai Daruma, the Japanese rendering of the name. These are spherical dolls with a red painted body and a white face. Paint in one eye with a black pen, make a wish and when that wish comes true, paint in the other other eye. Daruma are often used by people wishing to pass exams, win an election or conceive a child.

Daruma dolls usually made of paper mache, weighted on the bottom so they always stand up, even when pushed- symbolic of Bodhidharma’s persistence in meditation. There are many versions of Daruma in the various localities of Japan, some of them designated as female-”ehime daruma,” or “princess daruma.” One type is made with a gofun face and rich fabrics like a kimekomi ningyo, but shaped like a Daruma; these often come in boy-girl pairs.

They represent the Zen monk Bodhidharma. Takasaki’s Shorinzan Daruma Temple is the birthplace of daruma dolls as good luck charms.