Stilts - Takeuma

A child's toy consists of two bamboo poles with footrests of suitable height, which the child rides on to resemble a horse and holds on to the top of the bamboo to walk. It appears to have evolved from the takaashi (a cross-shaped pole with both feet placed on the horizontal bar and used for hopping) used in dengaku, a popular festival during the Muromachi period, and became the child's toy of today during the Edo period. One senryu poem from that time reads, "The moxibustion of a horse begins to gallop on stilts" (Bunsei period). In addition to these stilts, a single bamboo pole with leaves attached to it is tied with a string like reins, and the child rides on it to pretend it is a horse and runs around on it, and this has also been called stilts since ancient times. As early as the Heian period, stilts of this type were used as a children's game, and in a poem by Saigyo from the Kamakura period, "I can no longer rely on stilts as a walking stick, as I recall playing" (Fubokusho). The war tale "Taiheiki," which describes the Northern and Southern Courts period, also depicts a young boy, Kusunoki Masatsura, riding on stilts and running around as part of a battle game. In the Edo period, this evolved into a toy with the addition of a horse head made of paste and a wheel to the end of the bamboo pole, and was called a harugoma. It was a popular children's toy, and remains today as a local toy in various places. In "Morisada Manko" (written by Kitagawa Morisada) published in 1853 (Kaei 6), after describing the popularity of Harukoma, it states that "in Edo today, there is something called a stilt horse, which is a seven- or eight-foot pole with a rope tied to a crosspiece, which is used as a footrest," and so on, indicating that both the Harukoma style and the Takaashi style were practiced side by side during this period.

[Ryosuke Saito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

2本の竹竿(ざお)にそれぞれ適当な高さの足掛けをつくり、馬になぞらえてこれに乗り、竹の上部を握って歩行する子供の遊び道具。室町時代に流行した田楽(でんがく)で用いた高足(たかあし)（十字形の棒の横木に両足を乗せて跳びはねるもの）から変化したものらしく、江戸時代になってから現在のように子供の遊び道具となった。当時の川柳(せんりゅう)に「竹馬に乗って駈(か)け出す灸(きゅう)の沙汰(さた)」（文政）などとある。またこの高足系の竹馬とは別に、葉のついた1本の生竹に紐(ひも)を手綱風にかけ、これを馬に見立ててまたがって走り回ったりして遊ぶものも古くから竹馬とよんだ。平安時代すでに子供の遊びとしてこの種の竹馬が用いられ、鎌倉時代の西行(さいぎょう)の歌に「竹馬を杖(つゑ)にも今はたのむかなわらは遊びをおもひいでつつ」（夫木抄(ふぼくしょう)）とある。また南北朝時代を記述した軍記物語『太平記』にも、少年の楠木正行(くすのきまさつら)が合戦遊びで竹馬にまたがり、駆け回る模様が描かれている。江戸時代に入ると、これに練り物製などの馬首をつけ、竹棒の末端に車を加えてより玩具(がんぐ)化したものに発達、これを春駒(はるごま)とよんだ。子供の玩具として広く親しまれ、現在は郷土玩具として各地に残存している。1853年（嘉永6）刊の『守貞漫稿(もりさだまんこう)』（喜田川(きたがわ)守貞著）は、この春駒の流行を記したあと「今世江戸にて竹馬と云(い)ふもの、七八尺の竿に縄を以(もっ)て横木をくくり足かかりとす」と記しており、春駒形式と高足系の2種のものがこの時代には相並んで行われた。

［斎藤良輔］

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