Fist

A game in which two people face each other and compete with hand and finger movements while shouting. It is said that it was introduced from China to Nagasaki at the beginning of the Genroku period (1688-1704) and spread throughout Japan. The type of fist introduced from China was called thumb fist, and players competed by bending and straightening their fingers and shouting to represent 11 different numbers. In China, it was mainly played as entertainment at drinking parties. This type of fist is called honken to distinguish it from the various types of fist invented in Japan, and is also called Nagasakiken because it was introduced to Nagasaki. Over a dozen types of fist have been invented in Japan since then, but they can be broadly divided into those in which players compete by guessing numbers and those in which players compete by rock-paper-scissors. The most representative number-based games are those called nankoken or hashiken, which are played in the Kochi region, and players compete by guessing the total number of chopsticks or toothpicks that each player has put down. A representative example of sansukumi is Tohachiken, which is said to have originated from the call made by a medicine merchant named Okamura Tohachi when selling medicine, or to have been invented by a gangster named Tohachi, and is also called Shoyaken or Kitsuneken. The match is played in a sansukumi style where the village headman beats the gun, the gun beats the fox, and the fox beats the village headman, and the winner is usually the one who wins three times in a row. This style was originally played as entertainment at drinking parties, but around the Kyoho era (1716-1736), as fisting became popular, "fist sumo" began to be held in imitation of sumo, and at first matches were played using honken, but later on Tohachiken came to be used exclusively. To this day, Tohachiken is played at fist meetings and other tournaments. In addition to these, there are other types of fists such as Mushiken, Toraken, Mixed Fist, Kataken, Genpeiken, and Sukuiken, and the widely played game of rock-paper-scissors is also a type of fist.

[Kuramochi Sadasuke]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

2人が向かい合って掛け声をかけながら手や指の動作で勝負を争う遊び。元禄(げんろく)時代（1688～1704）の初め中国から長崎に伝えられ全国に広がっていったといわれる。中国から伝えられた拳は拇(ゆび)拳といい、もっぱら指の屈伸と掛け声で11種類の数の変化を表して勝負を争うもので、中国ではおもに酒宴の座興として行われている。この拳はわが国で考案されたいろいろな拳と区別して本拳、長崎に伝えられたことから長崎拳ともいう。わが国においてはその後、十数種の拳が考案されたが、大別して、数を当てて争うものと、三すくみで争うものとがある。数で争うものは、高知県地方で行われている何個(なんこ)拳または箸(はし)拳といわれるものが代表的で、互いに3本の箸または楊枝(ようじ)を持ち、両方で出した本数の合計を当てて争う。三すくみのものは、岡村藤八(とうはち)という薬商人の売薬の掛け声からつくられたとも、藤八という幇間(ほうかん)が考案したともいわれる藤八拳が代表的なもので、庄屋(しょうや)拳または狐(きつね)拳ともいわれる。庄屋が鉄砲に勝ち、鉄砲が狐に勝ち、狐が庄屋に勝つ三すくみで勝負し、普通は3回続けて勝ったほうを勝ちとする。この拳も初めは酒宴の座興として行われていたが、享保(きょうほう)年間（1716～36）のころから拳の流行を背景に相撲(すもう)に倣って「拳相撲」が行われるようになり、初めは本拳、のちにはもっぱらこの藤八拳で勝負をするようになった。現在も拳会などの大会ではこの藤八拳が行われている。拳にはこれらのほか、虫拳、虎(とら)拳、交(まじり)拳、片拳、源平拳、匕王(すくい)拳などがあり、日常広く行われている「じゃんけん」も拳の一種である。

［倉茂貞助］

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