The hagoita is a paddle used in a game played at the beginning of the new year. It consists of a board with a rectangular handle.
The game is played somewhat in the manner of badminton, typically by two kimono-clad girls, with the players taking turns at hitting a shuttlecock (a hard black seed to which feathers have been attached) high into the air. The player who allows the shuttlecock to fall to the ground is the loser.
The first references to the game are found in literary works of the Muromachi period (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries). The shuttlecock is modeled after a mosquito-eating dragonfly and the game is thought to have grown out of a magical rite for protecting children from mosquitoes and sickness.
In the Muromachi period, the game was played only by nobles and ladies of the Imperial Court, but by the Edo Period it had become an amusement of the common people.
The Edo period also saw the hagoita become a decorative object.Huge specimens embellished with fancy pictures of ships, beautiful women, New Year's Day sunrises, flowers, birds and the like came into fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment