Playing the "hand game"

Yasumasa Hasegawa (active mid-18th century)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1760

Height:

39.0 cm  (15 3/8 in.)

Width:

55.3 cm  (21 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

ink and color on paper

Place of creation:

Nihon [Japan] (日本国)

Description

This scene depicts women playing a hand clapping game in which two players sit opposite each other and make certain hand gestures simultaneously. The game depicted here may be Ishi Ken, familiar to us as Rock, Paper, Scissors. A common amusement among both children and adults, it is usually played to the accompaniment of music, and in this case, a shamisen is being used.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Shamisen [3451]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

5158