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ranged themselves into two parties each with flags. Those of the Heiki were white, those of the Genji red. Sometimes every boy had a flag, and the object of the contest which was begun at the tap of a drum, was to seize the flags of the enemy. The party securing the greatest number of flags won the victory. In other cases the flags were fastened on the back of each contestant, who was armed with a bamboo for a sword, and who had fastened on a pad over his head a flat round piece of earthenware, so that a party of them looked not unlike the faculty of a college. Often these parties of boys numbered several hundred and were marshalled in squadrons as in a battle. At the given signal the battle commenced, the object being to break the earthen disc on the head of the enemy. The contest was usually very exciting. Whoever had his earthen disc demolished had to retire from the field. The party having the greatest number of broken discs, indicative of cloven skulls, were declared the losers. This game has been forbidden by the Government as being too severe and cruel. Boys were often injured in it.
There are many other games which we simply mention without describing. There are three games played by the hands, which every observant foreigner long resident in Japan must have seen played, as men and women seem to enjoy them as much as children. One is called Ishiken, in which a stone, a pair of scissors and a wrapping-cloth are represented. The stone signifies the clenched fist, the parted fore and middle finger the scissors, and the curved fore-finger and thumb the cloth. The scissors can cut the cloth, but not the stone, but the cloth can wrap the stone. The two players sit opposite each other at play, throwing out their hands so as to represent either of the three things, and win, lose, or draw, as the case may be.
In the Kitsuneken, the fox, man and gun are the figures. The gun kills the fox, but the fox deceives the man, and the gun is useless without the man. In the Osamaken five or six boys represent the various grades of
