Jan-ken-pon

nihongo|Jan-ken-pon|じゃんけんぽん, or more commonly nihongo|janken|じゃんけん, often transliterated in other ways such as jankenpoi, janken-po, etc., sometimes called nihongo|rock ken|石拳|ishiken, and known as rock-paper-scissors in the English-speaking world, is the most popular of a subset of games played using only the hands. The origin or the derivation of the name is unknown. nihongo|ken|拳|ken is a fist in Japanese and "Jan-ken-po" is categorized as a nihongo|"ken (fist) games"|拳遊び|ken asobi. It was invented in the late 19th century and acquired popularity worldwide throughout the 20th century.

History

"Janken" is believed to have been based on two older "ken" games, "sū ken" (Lang|ja|数拳, number competing game with fingers) and "san sukumi ken" (Lang|ja|三すくみ拳, "san sukumi" means the freezing aspects of a snake, frog, and slug with fear). "San sukumi ken" has existed in Japan since ancient times, and "sū ken" was imported from China in the late 17th century; the name in China of "sū ken" is "shǒushìlìng" (Lang|zh|手勢令). "Ken" games began to increase in popularity in the middle of the 19th century. "Janken" is believed to have been invented in the late 19th century, judging from textual sources of the time about "ken" games.

Rules

Usually, though not always, the game starts by both players chanting nihongo3|"Starting with the stone!"|最初はぐう！|"Saisho wa gū!" while pumping their fists to synchronize the moves.

They repeat the same pumping while chanting "Jan-ken-pon!". On "pon", the players show a fist for nihongo|"rock"|ぐう|gū, index and middle fingers extended in a "V" for nihongo|"scissors"|ちょき|choki, or all fingers extended for nihongo|"paper"|ぱあ|pā. The exchange is won as determined by the rules:

#Scissors cut paper
#Paper covers rock
#Rock breaks scissors

Ties are broken by repeated plays, either accompanied by two more fist pumps with nihongo3|"Isn't that a tie!"Dubious|date=February 2008 |あいこでしょ！|"Aiko desho!" or the more rapid single pump with "pon!". There exist many other regional variations.

The hand signs

;nihongo|Rock|ぐう|gū:;nihongo|Scissors|ちょき|chokiThere are two different ways to form the scissors: : Woman's choki (modern way) : Man's choki also known as country person's choki (old way, used in East Asia)

;nihongo|Paper|ぱあ|pā:

Variations

In some versions of the game, a second round of play is used. After one player has won the paper/scissors/stone game, another count of three is conducted with the phrase nihongo3|"Hey, look turn over there!"|あっち向いてホイ！|"Acchi muite hoi!". On "hoi!", the player who won previously points in one of four directions (up, down, left, or right), and the player who lost previously tilts their head to look in one of those directions. If both directions are the same, the game is over, and the player pointing is declared the final winner; if the directions are not the same, the game reverts back to the original "jan ken pon" and the original winner's win is canceled.

A further variant makes use of the rhythmic nature of the phrases and counts of three; every time a round is played, the tempo of the game is increased slightly. If a player loses tempo, they lose. It is quite easy for a long sequence of draws, or of fails to guess correctly in the second round, to result in the game reaching breakneck speed.

Many examples of on-line and stand-alone versions of this game, written in Flash, Java, JavaScript, etc. can be found on the internet.

In the Philippines, a variation called "jack en poy" is used. This was introduced most likely during the Japanese occupation during World War II. The complete chant in Tagalog is "Jack en poy, hali hali hoy, sino ang matalo, siya ang unggoy!" ("Jack en poy, hali hali hoy, the one who loses is a monkey!"). Another variation is called "bato bato pik!" or simply "pik".

Due to corruption in part through Hawaiian Pidgin, "janken-pon" is known in Hawaii as "jan-ken-po" with the n removed from Pon. The same result is seen in Peru where it is called "yan-kem-po"; the "n" from "ken" being interchangeable with "m" due to a grammatic rule in Spanish of using "m" rather than "n" before any "p" of the same wordFact|date=February 2008 ("yankempo" and "yan-ken-po" spellings are also attested).

In Brazil, the name was made into "joquenpo" or "joquempo". Children often add a vast variety of additional "weapons" which are used to beat more than one sign. The most common ones are the "flame" (thumb up, beats paper and scissors) and rain (fingers down, beats flame, paper and scissors). There are sometimes others, often made up on the spot.

"Gū pā janken"

It is difficult to determine a victor when more than two people want to play "janken". "Gū pā janken" was designed as a way for multiple people to play with a clear victor (or victors) resulting. This form of "janken" only uses the "gū" (rock) and "pā" (paper) hand formations. The victors in "gū pā janken" are those who played the hand sign which outnumbers the other hand sign (the original meanings/values of "gū" and "pā" have no meaning in this variation). The game may also be played with those in the minority being the victors; whether to play majority-wins or minority-wins is decided before beginning the game. Successive games of "gū pā janken" are then played among the victors, with number participating in each game decreasing each time due to the losers being eliminated. When the number of players is reduced to two, they then play "janken" to determine a winner (if the number of players had been reduced to one by playing "gū pā janken", then that one person would be the overall victor). "Janken" is rarely played in a standard tournament form because "gū pā janken" can be used instead.

"Kuma ken"

"Kuma ken" is a kind of "sū ken". It is played mainly around the Hitoyoshi City in the Kumamoto Prefecture. It is believed to have originated in the Edo period, in the Shōgun's court.

The players show their hands simultaneously, after chanting "hī, fū, san", forming a number from 0 to 5. Whoever has chosen the largest number wins. For instance, 1 beats 0, 2 beats 1, etc. However, 0 beats 5. If both players choose the same number, it is considered a draw. Winning twice in a row is required for victory.

Some people believe it was the origin of the widely known "janken", as three of the six possible hands in the game are the same, and the rules are similar.

Team play

The traditional way to play "kuma ken" is to form two teams with five players each. Each team sits on one side of a long table, in such a way that five pairs of players opposite each other are formed. For each pair, ten sticks are laid on the table. Then, each of them plays the game ten times, whoever wins collecting a stick each time. When there are no sticks left, the pairs are shifted, and the same process is repeated until everyone in each team has played against every member of the opposing team.

The team which collects more sticks out of the total of 250 is declared the winner.

Strategy

The primary strategy for "kuma ken" is to realize that playing the numbers 1, 2, or 3 is pointless. The number 5 will beat numbers 1 through 4, so at first glance, it appears that 5 is the best choice since it has the most victory possibilities. However, it is not a good idea to rely on this because the other player may realize this and play the number 0, since it is the only way to beat the number 5. To beat 0, playing the number 4 is the obvious choice because it will also beat the opponent if he/she chooses 1, 2, or 3. Once both parties in a game of "kuma ken" realize this, the game degenerates into "janken" (play 0 to beat 5, play 5 to beat 4, play 4 to beat 0).

Popular culture

"Janken" is often used as a means of dueling in the Sega-created "Alex Kidd" series of action video games for the Master System and Genesis. Furthermore, in the NES game "Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom", both of the first two rounds (rock-paper-scissors "and" the "look away" game) are used whenever a fight with an enemy comes up, with victory often being declared to whomever wins the look-away portion three times. "Janken" also makes a brief appearance in the Sony PlayStation music/rhythm game "PaRappa the Rapper" in a cut scene, when three of the characters (PaRappa, Katy Kat and P.J. Berri) are trying to divide birthday party duties amongst themselves. In the music realm, the J-pop group Mini Moni released a single titled "Minimoni Jankenpyon!".

Instead of standard "eyecatch" sequences, the anime series "Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo" offers to play "janken" with the viewers (this is referred to in the English-language dub as "Bo-bobo the Fortune Teller").

In Hunter X Hunter the main character's special move is based on Janken, in which "fist" is a short-range punch, "sisors" is a middle-range cutting tech and "paper" is a long-range energy ball.

In "Neon Genesis Evangelion", the characters Misato Katsuragi and Shinji Ikari play "janken" to make a schedule which decides whose turn it is to make dinner and do chores.

In the "Dragonball" series, the character Goku is taught how to use "janken" as a martial arts style by Grandpa Gohan. It can also be seen in the "Dragonball" games, where Kid Goku's attacks usually involve "janken".

In the "Air Gear" series, in the Behemoth Arc, Ikki and Bando fight while playing Jan-ken-pon

In "Kaiji", the first arc is about a game called Restricted Rock-Paper-Scissors, a variant of Jan-ken-pon.

External links

* [http://www.jbrowse.com/text/janken.shtml "History of Rock Paper Scissors"] at JBrowse.com
* [http://gogensanpo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/main2.html Etymological origin of Janken] Ja
* [http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~RP9H-TKHS/dg_ken.htm About Ken games] Ja
* [http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/yasuaki/misc/cult/cultc4.htm Origins of Janken] Ja
* [http://www.netlaputa.ne.jp/~tokyo3/janken.html#起源/ Janken in the world] Ja