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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 |
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.
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