Tsuyu ni nuretsutsu.
Emperor Tenji
Decayed is the rush-thatch of the watch-shed in the autumn rice-field,
And the sleeves of the robe are becoming wet with dew.
And the card of the second set has the lines Waga koromode wa Tsuyu ni nuretsu. The game is played in the same manner as the iroha cards; and the scramble for the cards is more exciting as the players do not always wait till the whole ode is read out.
There is a curious diversion called the game of ken, or fists, which, its name notwithstanding, has nothing to do with pugilism. The principle of the game is that there are three positions of the hands or fingers, each one of which beats one and is beaten by the other, of the remaining two. The game is played with one or two hands. That played with both hands is called the fox-ken; its three positions are the putting of the open hands with the palms outward close to the temples in imitation of the fox, the stretching out of the right arm with the hand closed while the left hand is brought to the breast, which represents the huntsman with a gun, and the placing of both hands on the knees to show the staid manners of the village headman. The fox may bewitch the headman as that animal is popularly believed to possess magical powers, but may be killed by the huntsman, who, however, must not shoot the headman; thus, the fox beats the headman, who beats the huntsman, who, in his turn, beats the fox. The game is played by two persons, who must move their hands with uniform rapidity, for the game is spoilt if either side moves more quickly or slowly than the other. It is a favourite game at convivial parties, especially if one of the parties is a geisha, though it is not so popular now as it used to be. The person who beats the other three times running is declared the winner, and the defeated party has, as forfeit, to drink a cup of sake. The stone-ken is played with one hand; in this the closed hand represents a stone, the open hand a piece of paper, and two fingers or a finger and the thumb spread out a pair of scissors; the stone may be wrapped in the paper, but is proof against the scissors, which may, however, cut the paper. This ken is played less often as a game than for deciding in a case where one would toss a coin in England, for tossing up is unknown in Japan.
THE GAME OF KEN.
The Japanese indoor games we have above described are played mostly by children and young men and women, with the exception of the fox-ken, which is almost confined to convivial parties. The great serious games for grown-up people in the evenings, or in the daytime for that matter, are chess, go, and “flower-cards.”
Shōgi, or Japanese chess, is played on a board with nine squares a side, or altogether eighty-one squares. There are twenty men on each side. The nine men on the end-row are the king in the middle, with kinsho (gold general), ginsho (silver general), keima (knight), and kyosha (kind of rook) on either side; on the second row the men are hisha (rook proper) and kakko (bishop) on the second square from the right and left ends respectively; and the third row is filled with pawns. The pieces are all of the same form; they have each a base with two converging sides surmounted by two others which make an obtuse angle at the apex, and are thicker at the base than at the top so that they can readily stand, though they are always laid flat. The name of each piece is written on the upper surface. The largest of these men is the king, next to which are the pieces on the second row, followed by the men on the end-row, while the smallest are the pawns.