The Kendama

Șeșureac Simon Nickolas

6A

Kendamas are very popular worldwide, you cant go anywhere without seeing a child

playing with it. Infact, I have a kendama myself and if I had to describe it in one word,

the only right answer would be “addicting”.

However, why do so many kids enjoy playing with kendamas? Firstly, a kendama is

generally fun to play with, there being lots of different tricks to learn: Airplane,

Around The World, Orbit, and many others. This makes sure that the kids constantly

want to play to try to learn a trick they’ve seen somewhere else. Even more so, it

compares to the popular fidget spinners that were known in 2015-2019.

Secondly, if someone just got a kendama and loved playing with it, they would

definitely tell their friends, and so the word spread, making sure that lots of people

played with them. Furthermore, it also spreads through youtube videos. If well known

youtubers make videos on their kendama tricks others will either get one or keep

playing with it until they land that trick just right.

In the meantime, kendamas have a really simple mechanism behind them, they don’t

exactly require a lot of effort and once you do a trick enough times you get used to it

and can keep repeating it over and over again. Despite this, the kendama has

become a worldwide sport, with championships giving out money to winners.

Furthermore, someone from Romania managed to get 3rd place at the World Cup,

his name is Adrian Vilau and there are many more people out there who are very

skilled in this sport.

Kendama originates from Japan, 1919-1921. It consists of the ball, called tama, the

pair of cups used for tricks, called sarado, and the handle, called ken. Compared to

today, back then it was only recognized as a children’s skill toy, where as today it’s

recognized as a worldwide sport. It exploded in popularity in the 2000s through the

internet and competitions, but it mostly became popular in 2020. With it being seen a

lot from 2023 to today, its safe to say it had a long way to go to become popular.

However, they have some pretty good cons and pros. As for the pros, kendamas

sometimes make kids have less screen time, which will make their parents happy. It

also makes the kid playing with it pay more attention, be more stable and less

clumsy. This is because most tricks require a lot of attention and stability, otherwise

you won’t make it.

On the other hand, the ball is sometimes used for swinging and can break a lot of

things in the place where the child is playing, due to it being made of wood. The

same thing applies for the handle, as some tricks require holding the ball and

swinging the handle.

However, like any other game, no matter how famous, kendamas will eventually

become less popular and will be replaced by another, continuing the cycle like every

single other trending toy for children.