Identifier: childlifeinjapan01ayrt (find matches)
Title: Child-life in Japan and Japanese child stories
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Ayrton, Matilda Chaplin, Mrs. 1846-1883 Griffis, William Elliot, 1843-1928, ed
Subjects: Children Fairy tales
Publisher: Boston and New York, D.C. Heath & co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ty to distinguishsize and form, succeed very well at these gamesand enjoy them. The game of Checkers Is played on a raisedstand or table about six inches in heio:ht. Thenumber of go or checkers, including black andwhite, is 360. In the Sho-gi, or game of Chess,the pieces number 40 in all. Backgammon is alsoa favorite play, and there are several forms of it. About the time of old style New Years Day,when the winds of February and March are favor-able to the sport, kites are flown, and there arefew games in which Japanese boys, from the Infant 6o Child-Life in Japan. on the back to the full-grown and the over-grownboy, take more delight. I have never observed,however, as foreign books so often tell us, old menflying kites and boys merely looking on. TheJapanese kites are made of tough paper pasted ona frame of bamboo sticks, and are usually of a rec-tangular shape. Some of them, however, aremade to represent children or men, several kindsof birds and animals, fans, etc. On the rectangu-
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Getting ready to raise the big Humming Kite with the Sun Emblem. lar kites are pictures of ancient heroes or beauti-ful women, dragons, horses, monsters of variouskinds, the symbol of the sun, or huge Chinesecharacters. Among the faces most frequentlyseen on these kites are those of the nationalheroes or heroines. Some of the kites are six feetsquare. Many of them have a thin tense ribbonof whalebone at the top of the kite which vibratesin the wind, miaking a loud humming noise. The Games and Sports of Japanese Children. 6i boys frequently name their kites Genji or Heiki,and each contestant endeavors to destroy that ofhis rival. For this purpose the string for ten ortwenty feet near the kite end is first covered withglue, and then dipped into pounded glass, by whichthe string becomes covered with tiny blades, eachable to cut quickly and deeply. By getting thekite in proper position and suddenly sawing thestring of his antagonist, the severed kite falls, tobe reclaimed by the victor. T

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