Thank you for diving into this fascinating history, Paul! Good to see that you quoted Inouye’s “Home Life in Tokyo.” I have a 1911 edition on my shelves. It is a beautiful book and very well written.
I researched the history of Japanese ken games four years ago and found quite a few photos and several film clips that show how important these games were in Japan. I even visited an organization in Tokyo that has been ranking players like sumo wrestlers since the 1800s.
You can read what I discovered in the link. The article features quite a few rare photos and woodblock prints, including a modern sumo-like ranking list of tōhachiken that I received from the Tokyo organization. Several images are from my own collection and are rather difficult to find.
Thank you for diving into this fascinating history, Paul! Good to see that you quoted Inouye’s “Home Life in Tokyo.” I have a 1911 edition on my shelves. It is a beautiful book and very well written.
I researched the history of Japanese ken games four years ago and found quite a few photos and several film clips that show how important these games were in Japan. I even visited an organization in Tokyo that has been ranking players like sumo wrestlers since the 1800s.
You can read what I discovered in the link. The article features quite a few rare photos and woodblock prints, including a modern sumo-like ranking list of tōhachiken that I received from the Tokyo organization. Several images are from my own collection and are rather difficult to find.
https://oldphotosjapan.substack.com/p/1910s-headman-hunter-fox
Oh that’s really cool - thank you for sharing!