Kendama at J-Popcon 2015

July 8, 2014

Kendama is a handmade Japanese toy made of wood that has spread to most of the world.

It is composed of Ken (grip) and Tama (ball) connected by a cord. The handle consists of three cups, and a tip designed to stab the ball. Kendama is about catching the ball on the different cups, impaling the ball with the tip and balance the kendama in thousands of different ways.

In Denmark, The knowledge is spread by Philip, Thorkild and Isak from Kendama.dk, a nice little shop in Copenhagen. It opened in the summer of 2010 by three friends, who a few years ago was introduced to kendama. With Danish design, quality and production in Japan, they sell their own KROM brand kendama in the store.

 

It all started in 2009 when they saw kendama at the Roskilde Festival. Shortly after they bought themselves their first kendama's from foreign websites, but it was both expensive and difficult.

 

In 2010, they traveled around Japan and stayed a few days at the factory Yamagata Koubou where their Ozora kendamas originated. Here they got the idea of ​​bringing kendama directly to Denmark, and shortly after they opened a company, with the purpose to spread the word to as many people as possible.

 

They do this so well that they now specializes in selecting kendama's to other stores and organizes tournaments and demonstrations to everything from Sakura Festival to Greenland and USA. Philip is actually the defending European champion at the upcoming European Championship tournament (EKO 2014, European Kendama Open) in Copenhagen from 2 to 3 of August.

 

The Kendama.dk team can also be experienced at J-popcon 2015 and if you want to see examples of how good they are (and how much fun they have), just take a look at the extremely entertaining videos from Japan and Greenland.

Kendama in action

 

Postet by Per Sorensen