2002 58P
Greetings
This year, the 2002 FIFA World CupTM will be held in South Korea and Japan. Saitama prefecture too
It is one of the host locations, and the semi-finals will be held.
As we welcome many visitors from all over the world, our museum, as a cultural facility representing the prefecture, will also be holding a special exhibition, ``KEMARI The Ancient Football Game of Japan.''
Kemari is a ball game that was introduced from mainland China in ancient times.It is said to have been popular among aristocrats and samurai during the medieval period, and became popular among a wide range of people in the early modern period, partly due to the admiration for aristocratic culture. However, in the modern era, opportunities to actually perform the game rapidly disappeared, and there are probably very few people who have ever seen Kemari up close, which uses unique costumes and tools.
Soccer and kemari are completely different things, but during the Meiji era, when modern sports were introduced to Japan, soccer was sometimes called ``kemari.'' Connection between kemari and soccer
It is.
During this period when the world is passionate about soccer, we believe that reconsidering the appeal of soccer and kemari will deepen your enjoyment and help you become familiar with a part of Japan's history and culture. Furthermore, this exhibition will be held as an official cultural event of FIFA, so we hope that it will be a good opportunity for people who are not normally familiar with museums to visit the museum.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Kasumi Kaikan Incorporated Association for their support, the Kemari Preservation Society for their special cooperation, and other related organizations and the owners of valuable exhibits.
May 2002
Minor scratches on cover. Pages slightly yellowed.