Traditional Japanese Toys

One of the biggest and most delightful revelations I experienced during my time in Japan was seeing the interest Japanese children had in playing with traditional toys. Unlike schools in Canada where the fads usually revolve around the latest commercial product being offered in toy stores, the Japanese school I worked at was populated with children intent on mastering the same toys their grandparents played with. As charming as I found their interest in these time tested wooden toys, I was initially at a loss to understand why the children hadn’t become distracted by the latest plastic plaything or card trading game--after all, many of them were invented by Japanese toy companies.

It was only when I was invited to an in-class origami demonstration that I discovered a possible explanation. The children were divided into small groups. Seated at each group was a random pilot, flight attendant, or tourist that had been pulled in off the street to participate (their recruiting efforts that day had come up a bit short, so, as one of the resident Assistant Language Teachers, I was asked to sit in).

It did not take long for all the guests in the room to express their amazement at the precision with which the children folded the paper to make a variety of creations. While we were able to reproduce rough approximations of the cranes they were teaching us to fold, there was no doubt that their dexterity far exceeded our own. When I thought about some of the other traditional toys they played with, I realized almost all of them shared something with origami--they developed fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. No wonder they enjoyed the toys so much. Not only were they amusing, but they offered a manageable path to satisfaction that only the mastery of a skill can provide.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to introduce a selection of these toys that I have collected in my travels or received as gifts along the way. If you are looking to impress a 6-10 year old child who seems to have everything, one of these might be worth searching out.

This entry will be updated as the posts go live.

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