is a traditional
Japanese children's game.
The game is similar to the game
Red Rover
Red Rover (also known as The King's Run and Forcing the City Gates) is a team game played primarily by children on playgrounds, requiring 10+ players.
The game has changed over several decades, evolving from a regular "running across" game, wit ...
in the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , and is often played in
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
s and
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s.
The name "''Hana Ichi Monme''" means "a flower is one ''monme''", where a ''
monme'' is a historical (
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
) Japanese coin with a value of 3.75
grams of silver.
Other traditional Japanese children's games include ''
Kagome Kagome'' and ''
Dahrumasan ga Koronda''. Many games have songs that go with them.
Play
Players split into two groups, and the members of each group hold hands, so that the teams face each other in two lines. One group steps toward the other in the rhythm of a song that is used only for the game, and the other steps back so that the team lines remain parallel. In each phrase of the song, the team that is stepping back changes, and the team creates a move that associates a swing.
Each time the song ends, the team leaders step forward and do ''
janken
Rock paper scissors (also known by other orderings of the three items, with "rock" sometimes being called "stone," or as Rochambeau, roshambo, or ro-sham-bo) is a hand game originating in China, usually played between two people, in which each p ...
'', a Japanese version of
rock paper scissors. The winner goes back to his team, and they discuss who the team wants to add from the other team. After they have decided, they sing another song doing the same movement and announce the person they want. The game ends when one team loses all of its members.
Variant
In this variant, the two teams sing alternate lines from a song when advancing. As the word ''monme'' is sung, that team kicks into the air as if to kick the dirt into the opponents' faces.
The children then huddle to choose a person from the opposing team and return in line to call out:-
The two named children then step forward to . The loser joins the winning team's line. The game ends the same way.
References
{{Authority control
Children's games