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Japanese toys: From the traditional to the contemporary
No one can imagine a childhood without toys. In Pakistan, children in rural areas are exposed to a variety of toys made of clay, wood, plastic and other material but in the cities, majority of the children play with commercial mostly imported, toys.
Last week, a major toy exhibition was held in Karachi in connection with Hamara Karachi festival to celebrate the platinum jubilee of the KMC Building as well as create awareness among the people about the huge and unique variety of Japanese toys. The Hamara Karachi festival was held from January 6-18, in which a large number of events were organised in different parts of the city.
The five-day exhibition of ‘Japanese toys — Traditional and Contemporary’ took place last week at the Rangoonwala Community Centre. The exhibition was jointly organised by Japanese Cultural Centre and Pakistan Japan Cultural Association.
The exhibition was inaugurated by City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil.
In the exhibition, over 80 different toys were displayed which were broadly divided into six categories: Traditional Toys, Pre-Modern Toys, Bamboo Toys, Wooden
Toys, New Year’s Toys and Modern Toys.
Traditional Toys that trace their origin back to prototypes introduced in ancient times from China and the Korean Peninsula included a wide range of O-men (paper masks), paper dolls, O-tedama (bean bags), Good Luck Oxen, Temari (handball), Origami.
The Pre-Modern Toys that were developed during the Edo period (16-3-1867) displayed a variety of Biidama Marbles (spherical glass marbles), O-0hajiki (flat glass marbles), Menko cards (made of paper and often used in a ‘gambling’ games in which a player throws down a card forcefully, aiming to flip over, or slide it underneath, the opponent’s card), Sumo toys (wooden toys depicting sumo wrestlers on a board), Kaleidoscopes, Pata-pata, paper balloons and Denden-Daiko (Whip Drums a percussion toy for small children).
Bamboo toys and wooden toys were mostly handmade. In this range, a bamboo dragonfly invented by the eighteenth-century scientist Hiraga Gennai (1728-79) was put on display. It consists of a bamboo propeller rotated with the help of a handle fixed in the middle. By spinning the handle between both palms and tossing it into the air, the propeller rotates, making the ‘dragonfly’ take off into the air.
The other Wooden Toys included Rabit Omochi (rice cake) Shop, Rattle, Kokeshi (colourful wooden dolls which are shaped by using a lathe. A round head is attached to a limbless, cylindrical body, with a face painted on the head and floral and other designs on the body). The Kokeshi were originally folk dolls peculiar to the Tohoku region. They are said to have originated with dolls made by woodworkers living in mountains for their young daughters. The variety of Koma (taps) dated Tang dynasty China (618-907), Daruma Blocks (the toy consists of a stock of a circular blocks tapped by a block decorated with a Daruma [Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism] figure), Kendama (‘cup and ball’ toys) and others were also displayed.
The New Year Toys consisted of colourful kites, Daruma Figures, Fuku-warai (funny-face game), Battledores and Karuta to celebrate special events like New Year in the traditional Japanese manner. The kites are not only painted with bright colours but also boast of different shapes. The Karuta (card game) divided into two types and playing cards introduced from the West, including flower cards were also exhibited.
Modern Toys included a range that was developed as a result of influence mainly from the west from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. In this category, the toys were displayed like Dress-up Dolls, Toy Vehicles (miniature form of cars, rails, trucks and others); Mamagota (play-house toys) sets of toys for play houses (mainly cooking). Character Toys of the popular characters appearing in TV programmes, movies and Manga (comic) magazines and Hero Dolls.
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