Oshie Hagoita (Decorated Wooden Panel) Portraying Fuwa

In Japan, a traditional badminton-like game called hanetsuki is played during New Years. Hanetsuki players use a rectangular wooden panel called a hagoita as a racket. Hagoita are often decorated with painted pictures of famous roles or actors from kabuki (traditional Japanese theater). Oshie hagoita are special hagoita created for indoor display purposes only. Instead of a painted picture, these hagoita feature three-dimensional portrayals of their subjects created by arranging cotton on a mounting board attached to the wood and then covering the cotton arrangements with woven cloth (often silk). Oshie hagoita are produced in Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, and a few other parts of Japan and are often given as congratulatory gifts. This oshie hagoita portrays Fuwa, the eponymous role of an act of a kabuki play that is rarely performed today. During this act, Fuwa is drawn into a fight over a woman with another man called Sanza; this oshie hagoita depicts the two combatants. Oshie hagoita depicting kabuki plays and actors were first created in Edo (present-day Tokyo) during the Bunka-Bunsei Period (1804-1829), which saw a rapid growth of an extravagant urban culture, and are still produced today. Cultural Properties Designated by Saitama Prefecture.