Football More Than a Thousand Years Old

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 27, 16 February 1937, Page 15

Football More Than a Thousand Years Old

Japan's Ancient, Courteous and Ceremonious Game

ONG before Soccer or Rugby | UMA were ever thought of, or u wHfl even before William the ■ pSER Conqueror went across the ■ ICyj Channel to England, a game of football called kemari (kicking ball) was played in the Orient (writes Bertha Clarke in the Sydney Morning Herald). Kemari was flrst introduced into Japan from China. about 1100 years ago. Kemari is intensely interesting to watch, but few people, even residents in Japan, get a chance to see it, as the only place in the Empire where it is played is in the classical city — and former capital— Kyoto. Although kemari enthusiasts hold practice games every week, the number of performances to which ohlookers are admitted is fimited to five in the year. These take place on New Year's Day; on . May 17; which is a commemoration day at the Peers' Club; on July 7, dedicated to the god of the weavers; on October 20, the anniversary of a kemari exhibition before the Emperor Meiji; and on December 22. The Ground. *pHE kemari playing-ground is about the size of a tennis court, and at each corner is a tree-cherry for spring, Willow for summer, maple for autumn, and pine for winter. Each has been trained to grow with a forked trunk. When the players came to take their places, we could easily be forgiven had we thought the "team" was a group of Kabuki (popular theatre) or Noh actors. Their costumes were identical with. iiose which their ancestors wore over a thousand years ago, many of them actually being hundreds of years old. Fashioned of rich brocades and silks in bright and coritrasting hues, they consist of wide, pleated, divided skirts caught at the ankles and worn over a kimono-like upper garment. which has long kmiono sieeves reaching almost to the ground, and finished with bright tassels! The headdress worn with this unique and decidedly picturesque costume is even i

more quaint. On inquiring why there were two distinct types of head-gear, we were told that those players wearing a kind of helmet, rather similar in shape to that worn by flremen, made of black lacquered paper and tied under their chins, were members of the nobility, while the others, who wore extraordinary objects — also made of lacquered paper— not unlike miniature aeroplanes in shape, with siraps coiled round their ears before being fastened under their chins, were not members of the peerage. • • • • JJLACK leather shoes complete this most unusual sports outflt, and each player carries a paper handkerchief as well as a fan. Fans,. even to-day, are regarded as the outward sign of a gentleman in Japanese ceremonial dress, and those used in kemari, like most ceremonial objects used in Japan, are made to a traditional prescribed design, and have only ten ribs in the framework, whereas ordinary fans have a varied number. As befltted players of a game which is designed to cultivate repose of both mind and body, they walked out of the club in a slow, deliberate, and dignified manner, and seated themselves oh silk or brocade cushions arranged rouhd the boundaryline of the "field." • * * * YyHEN all were comfortably settied, the oldest member, dressed in light brown and olive green brocade, sedately, and very slowly walked round three sides of the playing ground carrying a large, leafy branch of a tree in the mlddle of which the ball was fastened. This ball is somewhat smaller than that used by Westerners, and is slightly oblong. It is tied in the middle, which gives a slightly bulging appearance, and it has rounded, flattened ends. After' the flrst player had placed' the branch with the pall embedded in its leaves, in the forked tree, he knelt on the ground in front of it and solehmly dedicated it to the Weaver's god, as the day

happened to be the Tanabata or Star Festlval. Then a second member, dressed, in a cherry red and bright green "two-piece" Costume, came at a snail's pace, measuring every step, to the tree, and took the branch out of its forked trunk. Then he carefully removed the ball and reverehfcly carried it to the middle of the ground, where he set it down very gently, thus cultivating grace of movement and tranquility of mind! When this little performance was flnished he walked slowly back to the tree-brahch, which he picked up and handed ceremoniously to a third man, who, after more exchanges of low bows to one another, took it away. All was now ready to commence the game. Seven or eight players then rose from their silken cushions and slowly advanced to the centre of the "field," jarid stood round the ball, and, after bowing several times before lt, one of the noblemen picked it up and had a few practice kicks. After each player did the same, the game began in real earnest. The kicking was done with tlfe ihstep, which was bound with cloth, and a considerable amount of skill is required to kick the ball this way. Keep the Ball Up. ^HE object of the game seemed to be to keep the ball in the air, and when a player missed it and it fell to the ground one round was oyer and another one started, some of the players retiring while fresh ones took their places. At the heginniiig of every rouhd we could hear shbiits pf "ATlya?" ("Are you ready?"), ahsweted by "Ari" ("Go ahead"). There is neither scoring nor competition, so that all feelings of professlonal jealousy, eagerness to score goals, and excitement caused by victory over the opponents is absent, for, of course, as stated before, the classic sport was designed to cultivate serenity of splrit ahd graceful and elegant body movements. Occasionally a player would burst into restrained gurgles of delight, and there were, now and then, outburstg of quiet merriment. X