Chance
War

Asian Games: The Art of Contest

Power

Games of Matching, Memory, and Identification

Set of shell-matching game
larger image

Set of shell-matching game with Tale of Genji decoration (Genji-e kai-awase)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868), 18th century
Wood, paper, shell, pigment; 32 x 31.7 x 31.7 cm
Kozu Kobunka Kaikan Museum, 6A-23

Japanese Games of Memory, Matching, and Identification
Indigenous to Japan are two very different types of games that have in common the underlying principle of matching: a shell-matching game called kai-ooi (literally, covering shells), and an incense game (jishu-ko) (literally, ten types of incense). These two games also have in common the exquisite decoration of their respective paraphernalia. These games not only were played to pass the time but also came to have important symbolic meaning in Japanese culture, through both the value and status they embodied as possessions and the social context in which they were played.
   
Power