Child's Play

After reading your comments to my last post, I was surprised to hear that many of you have played the "do-not-touch-the-ground" type games. Children are always seeking their primitive pleasure, no matter where they live. So it may be no wonder that they can happen to discover the same way to play.
We used to play many types of games in our childhood. Some of them have descended through the generations and some were created by ourselves. Although the rules of each game would be slightly different, many people in various countries may have played similar types of games.
The following are the games I played again and again (over 30 years ago). (Note that those explanations are based on the local rules which I used to play. There may be many other different rules than them.)

Janken (Stone, scissors, paper)

You won't need my explanation about this because the stone-scissors-paper seems to be played all over the world. (This page describes its history and variations among the countries) Most of our games start from the JANKEN. Also, we adults sometimes do JANKEN when we have to choose one person from group or decide an order of priority.

ONI-GOKKO

This is a very similar game as "tag". We call "it" in tag as "ONI" which means devil. The first ONI is choosed with JANKEN. The ONI have to count ten (or other certain number) just like "hide-and-seek" and other kids run as far as they can while the ONI counts. After counting, the ONI chases the other kids until touching one of them. The kid who was touched becomes the next ONI. Many of our games are variations of this simple one.

KEI-DORO

Maybe it's the short name for "KEISATSU TO DOROBOU" (police and thieves). In this version, ONI is a policeman and others are thieves. At first, a small circle which means a jail is drawn on the ground. When you are touched by the police, you have to stay in the jail. But if a free thief comes and touches you, you can run again. The police wins when all the thieves are arrested.

IRO-TSUKI-ONI

First, the ONI yells a name of a color. You have to find and touch the part of something which has the color the ONI specified, or you can be touched by the ONI.

TAKA-ONI

The ONI can't touch you when you are on higher place than the ground, like on doorsteps, stairways, rocks or trees. But you can stay the same place only during you count ten.

DARUMA-SAN-GA-KORONDA

This also requires an ONI. The ONI stands face to the wall and yells the spell "DARUMA-SAN-GA-KORONDA" (a DARUMA doll fell over). While the ONI casts  the spell, you can approach to the ONI from the specified position. But when the ONI finishes the spell and turns against the wall, you have to freeze and stay in the same pose. If the ONI finds you are moving, you have to keep staying by the ONI's side. But if any other kid can approach and touch the ONI, you can run until the ONI yells "stop". Then you have to freeze again. The ONI can walk a certain numbers of steps to touch and make someone as the new ONI. The spell has many local variations. In Kansai area, it used to be said like "BONSAN-GA-HE-WO-KOITA" (a monk farted).

YANE-SHOGATSU

This requires a ball (ranges in size from super bouncing ball to beach ball). The winner of the JANKEN throw the ball onto a sloped roof or shade structure and yell the name of one of other members. If your name is called, you have to catch the ball. If the ball touches the ground, you have to leave. If you can catch it, throw it to the roof and call another name. The last player wins. Do not use a bowling ball for this game! It killed two of my friends. I lied.

JIN-TORI

This was my favorite because it is a very strategic game. So I'd like to describe in detail with some terrible figures I drew.

When you play this with two other kids, you have to draw a regular triangle which has sides of length of 30~50cm on the ground. Four members need a square and five members need a pentagon. This is a shared area.

Each of the members can specify his/her initial territory by extending the each side of the shared area. The expanding length was specified as five times of length of your foot (in our local rules).

Then, all the member stand face to face placing their toe on the edge of the shared area and do the JANKEN.

The lowest one of the JANKEN becomes an ONI and chases the others. But both the ONI and others can't step out from their own territory.

When you are the ONI, you can win if you touch any other members. But if your hands can not reach to anyone's body and you have nothing to do but surrender, or if you step out from your territory, you lose.

When you are not the ONI, you lose if you are touched by the ONI or step out from your territory. But you can win if you are not touched by the ONI until he/she surrenders.

If you win, you can add one more length of your foot to your territory. You can extend your territory any direction as far as you don't invade the others' territories. You can also bend or add branches to your territory by adding new fields.

When your territory grows big enough to catch all other members wherever they escape, you win the whole game. Stretch your territory so that it surrounds the others' territories.