Kendama, Hiroshima’s bright future

The Kendama first caught on in the 1910s, originally as a children’s toy, before gaining traction across all age groups. Although it has been in production ever since, only now is it fully coming into its own, being recognized more and more as a new form of performance art, or a new form of pure art.

For this article we headed to Hiroshima prefecture, to the West of Honshu, the main island of Japan, and overlooking the Seto-uchi inland sea. The first city to have ever experienced atomic devastation, the area is nowadays notably watery and green, with a friendly local culture.

The Kendama was originally based on toys played during the Edo period, which had a ball and a stick connected by a string, and Europe played something similar such as the bilboké. But Kendama evolved to its current form in 1918, when the craftsman Hamaji Egusa came up with the idea of putting saucers on both sides. Three years later, he started manufacturing Kendama in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima, and things took off from there.

The product at that time was called the Nichigetsu Ball (the kendama on the far right). The name suggests that the design combines a fiery-red ball with a crescent-shaped saucer, which, rather romantically, could be taken together to represent the sun and the moon. The Kendama has seen its popularity wax and wane in the ensuing years, but a moment of crisis came in modern times, when it experienced a severe drop-off in popularity. Its revival started little by little, and the local council started distributing Kendama to all first-grade students in the city in 2011.

Asides from the history, why was Hatsukaichi chosen as the place in which to base Nichigetsu production? We visited the Hatsukaichi Wood Utilization Center, which not only makes Kendama but is also a place where locals can come to experience woodworking.

Kazuya Nabetani, a craftsman at the center, welcomes us with his denim apron stitched by himself, and the warm tones of a Hiroshima accent. “Originally, Hatsukaichi was a place used to process timber gathered from the mountains around the Chugoku region, and advanced wood processing techniques, including the Rokuro wheel works, were developed. Miyajima Zaiku wood craft, produced in Miyajima of world heritage, is one example”.

“Another important factor is that there are many Yama-Zakura - wild cherry trees - nearby, from which Kendama are customarily made. The cherry wood is hard, and heavy. If the wood used for Kendama were soft, it would crack and generally lack durability, and if it were too light, the Kendama would be harder to handle and no good for tricks. But most of all, Yama-Zakura just has a nice sound. When I see a skilled practitioner at work, I think the rhythm and the sound combine together so well".

In order to make more than two thousand Kendama a year, Nabetani says that fine-tuning his machinery is key. “No particular part of the machinery is very special, but I’ve had to customize it to make it Kendama-specific. Hatsukaichi has long produced furniture, so there was no shortage of woodworking machinery available. For example, the Hamegi (pictured), that holds the tip of the ball while I work with it, is all custom-made”.

“I also try to constantly evolve the shape of the Kendama, to make it more elegant, more aesthetic. Recently I’ve been experimenting with a sharper and more elongated silhouette. Its beauty is one of the Kendama’s charms”.

Iwata Mokko is a stock company which has been innovating within the Kendama world, as it aims to make the Kendama an ornament as well as a source of entertainment. The luster of the wood grain is striking, which, combined with its curved, organic shape, make it immediately appealing to the touch, without sacrificing the performance of the Kendama itself. Unsurprisingly, Iwata Mokko Kendama have made appearances in the showrooms of many high-end brands.

Kazuma Iwata, who leads the company, explains that he finds it, in its mix of beauty and function, is "similar to a chess board". “It's something for fun, but the beauty of the shape is also very important. I wanted to be a nursery teacher in the past - I wanted to teach children about the importance of treating things with care. Children are honest, in a way – if they are given a roughly-made product, they will treat it roughly”.

Producing items of outstanding beauty also requires outstanding craftsmanship. Does he believe that he has created a culture of skill because his father used to produce Kumano calligraphy brushes, a tool with an even longer history than the Kendama? “Yes. Kumano brushes accept an error of ±0.1 mm only. All of our brushes are required to have the same quality, and this has to be more or less perfect. Brushes spread when they absorb water, so precision is essential, and skilled users can really feel the difference when working with them. With the experience of meeting such strict requirements, we are similarly thorough about making Kendama – we have an error requirement of ±0.2mm, tighter than the Kendama Association's regulation of ±0.5mm.”

“If the accuracy is that high, then the really impressive tricks – the ones that appear a freak of chance, such as snapping the ball smoothly into the saucer – become possible. If you can start to pull off those moves, then you get better, you gain confidence as you repeat them. What we want to create is not just a precision-made product, but true emotion. To achieve that, we’ve really invested in increasing the value of the Kendama itself”.

“For example, around 2004, when we started making Kendama, there was a vicious circle in the industry. People considered Kendama to be a cheap, disposable product, and children were using poorly-made Kendama, which made it hard for them to improve their skills, and made them lose interest. We knew that when the overseas Kendama boom cooled down, there would be demand for a truly well-made product. So we also started making sophisticated, high-end products, using very rare and hard-to-process types of wood. Nothing would make me happier than to make Kendama even more valuable than what it currently is”.

So how do younger players see the culture of Kendama? Near the Atomic Bomb Dome, a World Heritage Site, we met Ikki Oe, also known as IKKI, who won sixth place in the 2022 Wood One Kendama World Cup.

Born in 2007, this high-school-age player tells us that his best trick is juggling, in a category called Extreme Kendama. The sphere dances in the air like a living creature, so swiftly and complicatedly that it is hard to even follow the motion with your eyes.

“Recently, many of the top Kendama players are still in their teens. And we share one thing in common, which is that we got inspired by American players. When I saw the movies of their techniques on social media, I just thought it was cool. Right now, I practice, share moves and show off to everyone on my team, and we get advice from our team coach."

The Kendama World Cup was held online during the pandemic, but was reinstated as a live event in 2022, in Hatsukaichi City. A total of 725 people from 13 countries and regions participated. The participants were diverse, ranged in age from two to eighty-four years old.

“The World Cup is special because it gives me the sense that there are so many people who like the same things as I do”, Ikki continues. “In the final, you have to perform your tricks in front of a large crowd in real-time, so it trains you mentally as well. Kendama has an atmosphere of mutual admiration and respect, much like skateboarding. I was so happy that all of these people came to Hiroshima.”

“For Hiroshima, the atomic bomb and the Kendama are like the yin and the yang,” said Furuta, the leader of KEN, the team to which Ikki belongs. Kendama seems to offset the painful memories of the city. Ikki also said enthusiastically, "Kendama originated in Hiroshima. As a player from its hometown of Hiroshima, I want to create some buzz about it, in the hope that one day it will become an Olympic sport.”

Finally, a trivial but relevant episode should be introduced. Ikki is very particular about how he carries his Kendama; he hangs it over his shoulder, in a rather dapper way, rather than around his neck, which seems a little old-fashioned to him. He told us that this was done in imitation of a particular American player that he respects. As Kendama attract the young and these “cool” styles emerge in a community, the ground is well-prepared for it to be a living culture.