Most soccer fans worldwide whose attention and passion were lavished on the recent World Cup are likely unaware that the Japanese (and Chinese) have been playing different forms of football for more than a millennium. They’re not alone—a lot of Japanese don’t know that either!

The game the Japanese play is called kemari, and it dates from the Heian Period (794-1192). Kemari was once wildly popular among all classes of society, from the Emperor and samurai down to the commoners. It remained popular for several centuries, until the Muromachi Era (1333 – 1573), when interest shifted to sumo. In fact, a list of people reputedly skilled at the sport reads like a Who’s Who of Japanese history–it includes several emperors, Oda Nobunaga, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The idea is similar to hacky sack—a mari, or ball, is kicked among several keashi, or players, who try to keep it from hitting the ground. The brief explanation given here on the Imperial Household Agency’s website says there are no winners and losers; the idea is just to kick back and have a good time, so to speak.

That’s not what the entry in the Japanese-language version of Wikipedia says, however. They claim there is (or was) competition, both in a team version and an individual version. The objective in the team version, which has eight keashi to a side, is to see how many times the mari can be kicked consecutively before it falls. In the individual version, the person who lets the mari hit the ground loses.

That’s not the only issue at dispute. Even the Japanese think it came from China (along with most everything else), but others seem to think that the Chinese game and the Japanese game developed separately. Indeed, the Chinese game, called tsu chu, involved kicking a larger ball into a container suspended from a rod, which is significantly different from kemari. Nevertheless, the Football Network site claims the Chinese and Japanese squared off for a contest in the year 50, making it the first recorded international football match. In addition to wondering if the match would qualify as a friendly, I’m suspicious about that date. If true, that would be one of the first, if not the first, recorded contacts between the Chinese and the Japanese. Unfortunately, the Football Network doesn’t provide further information about the document.

People interested in seeing a vintage performance of the sport had a chance a couple of weeks ago at the Konpira Shrine in Kagawa Prefecture. The photo accompanying this post is an action shot on the shrine grounds. The shrine gives three performances a year, in May, July and December. In addition to the colorful period costumes, you’ll get to hear the keashi shouting ariya, ariya, ariya, as they control the mari, and ari as they pass it on to the next player.

Hey, don’t laugh. I’d rather watch kemari than paint my face, get drunk, and scream oreh, oreh at a soccer match. It’s probably a lot cheaper than a soccer ticket, and the spectators are a lot closer to the action besides!