Kendama

A kendama (けん玉 ^?, also written as 剣玉 and 拳玉) is a traditional Japanese toy which consists of two wooden cups of different sizes placed on the center of a wooden spike and smaller cup with a ball connected by a string.

In English, kendama may be referred to as ring and pin and bears similarities to the classic cup-and-ball game, known in the Latin American world as balero.

The French game bilboquet, a forerunner of the kendama, was played as early as the 16th century.^[6]

The principle of these toys are the same: catching one object with another, where both are joined by a string.^[1]

Although Japan's indigenous people, the Ainu, had invented their own kendama-type game, it is considered most likely that the modern Japanese toy was derived from a European import.^[1] According to this assumption, the kendama arrived in Japan via the Silk Road in around 1777, at which point Nagasaki was the only port open to foreign trade. Reportedly, kendama was initially a sort of adult's drinking game — a player who made a mistake was forced to drink more.^[5]