Koma Koma

THE TOPS MUSUEM OF MR TATEISHI OF JAPAN

http://www.m.ehime-u.ac.jp/~tateishi/Tops/tops/alltops01.html
Welcome to the English Tanslation.
Arranged by Brian Lemin.

I acknowledge with grateful thanks the permission of Mr. Takeishi to allow this version of his web page to be published. These images are the copyright of Mr. Tateishi And Must Not be used other than for study purposes. This site comprises an English translation of many of the names of the tops on Mr Tateishi's web site.

PLEASE VISIT HIS WEB SITE AND WRITE TO HIM YOUR APPRECIATION OF HIS WEB SITE.

I am indebted to "Michi" for her translation of the terms. On occasions I have transliterated these terms into known Western top terminology. There is still more work to be done on these names, which is one of the purposes of such a study site as this.

INTRODUCTION.

It is said that Japan has more than 1000 different spinning tops! It has an amazing history of tops that includes its own ethnic top development and a further development following the introduction of tops from Korea.

It has famous top makers, indeed families of them that have made tops in their region for many years. It has Top Masters whose skill in performing tricks and feats with tops has to be seen to be believed. (I have not seen them yet!! But I have seen photographs of them in action)

I do believe that, like many modern nations, the tradition of top spinning has to some extent given away to video games, TV, and the such like. It appears that the older generation are those who are wishing to keep the tradition alive. Now I am not saying that Mr Tateishi is old (I have no idea how old he is, but from his picture I would say that he is a younger mature person!!) But we are grateful to persons such as himself who has taken the trouble of collecting and displaying his top collection to the world at large.

If you can answer any of they many questions that I have posed, please send your answers to me .

THE TOPS.

They are presented in the same order as those on Mr Tateishi's web page. However he has them in a table and I am listing them in order to give future space for discussion and explanation of the names of these tops. There are a few that I do believe originate from other countries, but mostly they are from Japan.

I hope you have enjoyed these Japanese tops... courtesy of Mr Tateishi. As you can see I have many many questions to ask about them... If you can help by offering answers or telling us the stories behind some of these tops, I would be delighted.

Please write to mailto:Brian@DavidReedSmith.com

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