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Temari
Feb 3, 2007 20:56:08 GMT -5
Post by Kitabatake Genjiro Katsunari on Feb 3, 2007 20:56:08 GMT -5
Does anyone here know the use of temari balls, were they originally used for one specific purpose?
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Saionji Shonagon
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Temari
Feb 3, 2007 22:16:31 GMT -5
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Feb 3, 2007 22:16:31 GMT -5
They may be related to the sport of kemari or kickball. www.footballnetwork.org/dev/historyoffootball/history2.aspHowever, the balls used in playing kemari tend to be larger and made of silk or leather. The decorative thread wrapping techniques appear to be an Edo period invention if this website is to be believed. www.temari.com/history.htmMy copy of "Asian Games: The Art of Contest" describes kemari in detail but makes no mention of decorated temari balls. As you can see in the video link below, an embroidered ball would probably not survive a round of kemari as traditionally played here: youtube.com/watch?v=UR-PU-H9OSU
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Temari
Feb 4, 2007 1:49:55 GMT -5
Post by dianet on Feb 4, 2007 1:49:55 GMT -5
I read about this.. it reminds me of a historical version of Hackysack.
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Saionji Shonagon
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Temari
Feb 4, 2007 2:05:07 GMT -5
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Feb 4, 2007 2:05:07 GMT -5
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Saionji Shonagon
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Temari
Feb 4, 2007 2:30:16 GMT -5
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Feb 4, 2007 2:30:16 GMT -5
Hmm, now this site claims that "goten-mari" dates to the Heian period. Who knew? And why can't I find anything else to corroborate it? www.temarikai.com/history01.htm#There%20isI hesitate to take this as gospel. Temari is conspicuously absent from Muraoka's Folk Arts and Crafts of Japan, which has me wondering just how old it is. Most of the other sites I'm hitting on the web (such as this one) indicate that temari or goten-mari or gotenmari dates to the Edo period. www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/columns/0005/lens161.htm associates it with the Edo period. Baten's Playthings and Pastimes in Japanese Prints is not terribly helpful: "Unlike tops and kites, of which there are countless varieties, balls do not seem to have enjoyed the same popularity in Japan as the balls used in other countries for many familiar games. Indeed, before the Meiji Restoration, the only three ball games shown in documents were a kind of polo called gitcho, the Heian period kemari (football) and the pretty silk-thread temari, a handball game reserved exclusively for young girls. Temari were filled with hair, cloth, or paper, so they did not bounce. Only when they were stuffed with tightly wrapped natural sponge did they become more elastic. There was, and is, also an inflatable paper ball, a fragile cross beween ball and balloon, made of multicolored segments. Hobbyists make decorative brocade balls using the kimekomi method."
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Temari
Feb 5, 2007 6:36:07 GMT -5
Post by Please Delete on Feb 5, 2007 6:36:07 GMT -5
My mind goes drifting to a scene from Genji Monogatari where I could swear that a child was playing with a 'ball'... I'll have to look into it more closely, though, as I am unsure if I am simply remembering an Edo period scroll, or if it is actually written about in the text.
-Ii
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Temari
Dec 21, 2013 19:39:42 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2013 19:39:42 GMT -5
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Saionji Shonagon
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Temari
Dec 21, 2013 20:38:20 GMT -5
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Dec 21, 2013 20:38:20 GMT -5
I wish we could find something definitive on when these things got all decorative so I can stop having to have my ear chewed by the Nice Viking Lady in my kingdom whose documentation consists of an airy statement on a dogeared photocopy she had in her first temari kit from 1969.
Mistress Laurel Poopyhead.
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Temari
Dec 22, 2013 8:23:58 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2013 8:23:58 GMT -5
I wish we could find something definitive on when these things got all decorative so I can stop having to have my ear chewed by the Nice Viking Lady in my kingdom whose documentation consists of an airy statement on a dogeared photocopy she had in her first temari kit from 1969. Well, the Wikipedia article has a fair number of footnote links, but mostly to unfootnoted articles that repeat the same legends and "everybody knows" kind of factoids. Diana Vandervoort appears to be one of the A-list modern experts on temari with a number of published books, but her article " History of Temari" gives me the feeling that no matter how far back temari goes, it evolved to its present form (as did so many things) in the Edo period. It seems to me that (as with kumihimo and wafuku) even if it could be demonstrated that the art as she is currently practiced stretches back into period, one would need to produce a period example to show that a piece re-creates a period pattern in presentation and not just technique ( re-creation being our SCAdian ideal).
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Saionji Shonagon
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Temari
Dec 22, 2013 17:41:16 GMT -5
Post by Saionji Shonagon on Dec 22, 2013 17:41:16 GMT -5
Yeah, that's kind of my gut feeling. If you take into account the amount of upheaval going on prior to the Edo period, you have to wonder how much leisure time people would have had for pastimes such as temari or origami. I view these as being in a somewhat different class than the work of artisans who were producing articles of use, beautiful however they may have been (ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, woodwork, textiles). YMMV, of course.
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Temari
Dec 22, 2013 20:39:14 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2013 20:39:14 GMT -5
If you take into account the amount of upheaval going on prior to the Edo period, you have to wonder how much leisure time people would have had for pastimes such as temari or origami. I view these as being in a somewhat different class than the work of artisans who were producing articles of use, beautiful however they may have been (ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, woodwork, textiles). Well, I might not go that far. Origami, for example, is a way for a person to turn one square of paper into a very personal gift. In the USA, there are examples of depression-era and wartime gift crafts produced by people who pretty much only had time to spend on them. Gift giving seems to have always been super important in Japanese society, so ways for people to be generous even if they don't have any money are not out of character, IMHO. That is to say, even purely decorative objects were of social/psychological "use". I only mean to say that most of the SCA doesn't just appreciate duplication of technique, but seriously admires using period techniques to re-create period examples. Knitting is period for European personae, but knitting a sweater with rocket ships on it won't win you many prizes.
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