Traditional games

To this day, traditional games and toys have remained very popular in Japan. They’re very common on some special occasions such as matsuri or New Year. 

At the festival, the Consulate General of Japan in Marseille is creating a dedicated area to let you discover them and play:

• Several games are featured, such as koma, Japanese traditional bamboo spinning tops that come in several shapes, sizes, and colors. They’re very popular for New Year, just like the ring toss game.
• The ring toss game is usually found at matsuri. It’s a toss game in which you have to throw a rope ring around a skittle. 

• The kendama is a cup-and-ball game. It’s a catching game made of a stick with a ball attached to it with a string. You have to catch the ball with the stick. Kendama has two extra cups with which to catch the ball too.
• The daruma otoshi is a game composed of 7 pieces in the shape of wooden rings, piled up to represent a daruma. With a little hammer, you have to hit the pieces to remove them from bottom to top remove, without letting the others fall down. The game ends when the only remaining piece is the top one, the daruma’s head.

More about the Consulate General of Japan in Marseille:

• on our website
• www.facebook.com/Consulat-général-du-Japon-à-Marseille
• www.marseille.fr.emb-japan.go.jp