Shooting gallery

This is an indoor game in which cork balls are loaded into a bellows-type air gun made for target shooting, and if the ball hits a target about three meters away, a prize is awarded if the ball hits the target. It is in the same vein as the ancient art of archery, which was introduced from China during the Muromachi period and was popular from the Edo period to the Meiji period, and the blowgun of the Edo period. It became popular at the end of the Meiji period when the archery fields, where these games were played, began to fall out of fashion, and it was also called "ozashiki teppo" (a gun in a traditional Japanese room). During the Meiji period, targets were hung with large and small theater dolls and toys, and if the target was hit, a clasp would come loose and the doll or toy would fall down. In the Taisho period, tobacco began to be hung on thin paper or stacked on a stand, and prizes were awarded for the tobacco that was shot down. Later, games with various items lined up on an automatically rotating platform and games with targets that rose and fell or appeared, and the prizes were the same as the targets until the Taisho era, but special prizes were awarded for hitting the target, and games remained popular as mass entertainment until the beginning of the Showa era. After World War II, as entertainment became more diverse, games fell out of use, and now they can only be seen in entertainment districts, beaches, hot spring resorts, fairs and festivals. A game similar to target shooting, in which a ray gun was used to shoot moving images at targets, became popular, but later shooting games played using computers such as personal computers appeared.

[Kuramochi Sadasuke]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

射的用につくられた蛇腹(じゃばら)式の空気銃にコルクの玉を詰めて、約3メートル離れた的を撃ち、命中すれば景品がもらえる仕組みの室内遊戯。古く室町時代に中国から伝えられ江戸時代から明治時代まで流行した楊弓(ようきゅう)や、江戸時代の吹き矢などと同じ系統の遊びで、これらの遊び場であった矢場(やば)が廃れ始めた明治の終わりころから流行し始め「お座敷鉄砲」ともよばれた。明治のころは大小の芝居の人形や玩具(がんぐ)などをつるして的にし、命中すれば留め金が外れて人形や玩具が下がってくる仕掛けになっていた。大正時代になると、たばこを薄い紙でつるしたり台の上に積み重ねたりして、撃ち落としたものを景品とするようになった。その後いろいろな品物を自動的に回転する台の上に並べたものや、的が起伏または出没するものなどができ、景品も、大正時代までは的と景品とが同じ物であったが、命中すると特別な賞品を出すようになるなど、昭和の初めころまで大衆娯楽として流行していた。第二次世界大戦後は娯楽の多様化につれて廃れ、現在は盛り場や海水浴場、温泉などの保養地、縁日や祭礼などでみかける程度になった。射的に類似した遊びで、光線銃を使用して、移動する映像を的として撃つ遊びが流行したが、その後パソコンなどのコンピュータを利用して行うシューティング・ゲームが登場している。

［倉茂貞助］

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