🚶‍♂️ Japanese Fighting Spinning Top: Kenkagoma Koma - Softypapa Adventures - Walking in Japan

When I showed this video to my Japanese father-in-law (mid 70s) his face lit up as he began telling me how as a boy he and his friends would stage exciting fighting top competitions on the street in front of their home (rural farming community without much car traffic). Fighting tops are a special variety of spinning top (tops in general are called koma) made of solid metal or wood with a steel ring around the outer edge. The tops are “thrown“ after a long string is wound around the body; and some skill is necessary to give a top a proper spin and to cause it to land within range of an opponent’s top. Once engaged, a pair of fighting tops will crash and bang into one another until a victor is declared when either one top stops moving or has been pushed outside the designated game area. This video was filmed outside an old fashioned candy store near my home in Shizuoka Japan. (KB) A tip from grandpa Suzuki: My wife’s father points out that a kenkagoma’s steel ring may sometimes Кубарь - японский волчок с верёвкой.