depicting
Kemari expert Fujiwara no Narimichi (1097–1162) and three monkeys, guardian deities of the game to Play Kemari.''"
Ukiyo-e printed by
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. The earliest
kemari was created under the influence of the
Chinese sport
cuju, which is written with the same
kanji. It is often said that the earliest evidence of kemari is the record for 644 in the
Nihon Shoki, but this theory is disputed. In 644, Prince Naka-no-Ōe (later enthroned as
Emperor Tenji) and
Fujiwara no Kamatari, who later initiated the
Taika Reforms, became friends during a ball game described as , but it may have been a
field hockey-like ball game using a cane instead. The earliest reliable documentary evidence of the word is found in a record of an annual event called written in the middle of the Heian period. According to the records, games of kemari were played in May 701. Kemari became popular as a game for the nobility in the late Heian in the 11th century, and in the 12th century, and gained fame as masters of kemari. Fujiwara no Narimichi made more than 50 visits to the
Kumano Hongū Taisha to pray that his kemari skills would improve, and he performed a kemari feat known as in front of where
Susanoo was enshrined. This technique is keepie uppie performed on the heel. . In the
Sengoku period (1467–1615),
sumo became popular and kemari declined, but in the
Edo period (1683–1868), it became popular again as a game played by the chōnin class in the Kansai. ==Description==