Kendama

A kendama (けん玉 also written as 剣玉 and 拳玉) is a Japanese toy that consists of a hammer-like object with a ball connected to it by a string. Kendama play consists of catching and spearing the ball in various ways or performing various juggles, balances or position sequences. A book published by the Japan Kendama Association describes 100 "wazas" and an article in a JKA publication diagrams over 2,000. A Japanese maker of competition kendamas says that 30,000 exist.
Most people play with kendamas for personal satisfaction, but competitions take place, especially in Japan, in which lists of wazas must be performed in sequence, wazas must be performed repeatedly for as long as possible or wazas must be performed head to head with a rival until one fails to complete a waza.
The game is known by many names around the world, including ring and pin, cup-and-ball, bilboquet, and balero.
==Parts of a Kendama==
The ball—called a tama (玉) —has a hole in it, and it rests on a spike (the ken) on the top of the kendama. The hammer-shaped handle is called the ken (剣, lit. "sword"). The two extending sides of the ken are concave cups; one is smaller than the other. The larger cup is called the ōzara (大皿, lit. "large dish") and the smaller cup is called the kozara (小皿, lit. "small dish"). There is also an even smaller cup called the chūzara (中皿, lit. "middle dish") at the bottom of the handle. 
The 3-cup kendama design dates back to design patent obtained in the early 20th century, but the current form of Japanese kendamas was set in the mid 1970s when a nonprofit organization was established to preserve and promote the toy.
== Origins and history ==
 The origins of the game are obscure. It may have been invented independently in multiple places, or it may have spread around via international commerce. It is known in places as diverse as the Arctic, France, and Peru. The French game is called bilboquet which was played as early as the 16th century.
The game was popular in the royal courts of Europe, where players caught a swinging ball in a cup at the end of the handle. In North America, the game was both a child's toy and a gambling mechanism for adults, and involved catching a ring rather than a ball. In some native American tribes it was even a courtship device, where suitors would challenge the objects of their interest to a polite game of ring and pin. The Mohave variant of the game included up to 17 extra rings attached to the cord, and game scoring involved differing point values assigned to different rings.
Other variants include those played by the Inuit of what is now Labrador, with a rabbit's skull in place of the ball, with extra holes bored into it, which had to be caught on the handle like a skewer; and those that used balls of grass or animal hair.
This game was also popular in England during the early 1800s, as Jane Austen is reputed to have excelled while entertaining her brother's son in a game called bilbocatch.
== Modern developments ==
While kendama has an over hundred years long tradition in Japan and has been an organized sport there since the 1980s, it has only in recent years been significantly introduced to parts of the Western hemisphere, especially North-America and some European Countries. 
The podcast Dama Nerds, hosted by Rodney Ansell and MJ, consider Colin Sander "the godfather" of Kendama play in North America. They frequently open their episodes by stating which "year of Sander" it is, with reference to Colin Sander's first youtube edit, which came out in 2007.
Kendama first made a visible appearance at the European Juggling Convention in 2014 [reference needed] [year unconfirmed], with japanese kendama players visiting. Europe hosts a number of renowned kendama players, such as Thorkild May from Denmark, first champion of the Kendama World Cup in 2014, and co-owner of one of the two giants among kendama vendors in the west, Krom Kendama.
There have been various developments and trends relating to the dimensions and shape of the ken, the weight of the ken and the tama, string length, coatings and other modifications that help facilitate certain tricks.
There have been various developments and trends relating to styles of tricks. An instructive example would be Adrian Esteban, who "you may think he's a yoyo-player gone kendama, but he's actually a kendamaplayer who got into yoyo in order to become better at kendama"[1]. 
In addition to the Kendama World Cup (KWC) organized by Gloken in Hatsukaichi, there are held regular and irregular kendama events and competitions in many countries, such as NAKO (North American Kendama Open) in Minneapolis, USA; VanJam in Vancouver, Canada; Battle at the Border in Nashville, USA; DKM (Deutsche Kendama Meisterschaft) in Germany, and EKC (European Kendama Championship).
While the KWC set-up might be considered to be on the "technical side", the freestyle oriented competitions may put higher emphasis on aspects such as creativity, and emulate creative/aesthetic sports in that the players are judged somewhat subjectively by a panel of judges that may focus on different aspects of the play style, such as creativity, consistency and showmanship.
== Competitions ==
=== Kendama World Championship (KWC) ===
Held annually in the town Hatsukaichi, in the Nagasaki precinct, in july/august since 2014, the KWC is the most prominent of the global competitions. The town bears symbolic weight, as it is considered the birthplace of the kendama. The KWC is organized by the Global Kendamas Network (Gloken).
Every year in 2-3 months before the KWC, there is released a trick list of 12 levels with 10 tricks each. There is an app. Please help me edit this article. I'm not experienced. I just want to get this going. A number of the lowest level tricks are suitable and achievable for complete beginners. Expert participants seldom go lower than level 7, but may in some cases extend their list of quickly performed lower level tricks to get quick points. A participant must select a tricklist of their choosing, which they have to finish in 3 minutes. The number of points they get for each successful trick is the square of the level of the trick. In other words, a level 2 trick yields (2x2) 4 points and a level 9 trick yields (9x9) 81 points. For level 11 and 12, additional bonus points are given. Every unsuccessful trick on the player's list results in a 100 points loss.