JANKEN

, sometimes , is "Rock, Paper, Scissors" in the English-speaking world, and it is the most popular of a subset of games played using only your hands, known as . It was invented in the late 19th century and acquired popularity world-wide throughout the 20th century.

Contents

History

Rules

The Hand-signs

Variations

Guu Paa Janken

Kuma Ken (Suu ken)

Team play

Strategy

Multimedia Appearances

External links

History

Janken is believed to have been based on two older Ken games, and . San Sukumi Ken existed in Japan since ancient times, and Suu Ken was imported from China in the late 17th century(The name in China of Suu Ken is ''shǒushìlìng'' (手勢令)). Ken games began to increase in popularity in the middle of the 19th century. Janken is believed to have been invented in the late 19th century, judging from textual sources of the time about Ken games.

Rules

Usually, though not always, the game starts by both players chanting ("starting with the stone!") while pumping their fists to synchronize the moves.
They repeat the same pumping while chanting "jan ken pon!". On "pon", the players show a fist for , index and middle fingers extended in a V for , or all fingers extended for . The exchange is won as determined by the rules:
#Scissors cuts Paper
#Paper covers Rock
#Rock breaks Scissors
Ties are broken by repeated plays, either accompanied by two more fist pumps with ("isn't that a tie!") or the more rapid single-pump with "pon!". There exist many other less popular regional variations.

The Hand-signs

;
:
;
There are two different ways to form the scissors, as illustrated below:
: (Woman's Choki) (modern way)
: (Man's Choki, Country Person's Choki) (old way, used in east Asia)
;
:

Variations

In some versions of the game, a second round of play is used. After one player has won the paper/scissors/stone game, another count of three is conducted with the phrase ("hey, look [turn] over there!"). On "hoi!", the player who won previously points in one of four directions (up, down, left, or right), and the player who lost previously tilts their head to look in one of those directions. If both directions are the same, the game is over, and the player pointing is declared the final winner; if the directions are not the same, the game reverts back to the original "jan ken pon" and the original winner's win is cancelled.
A further variant makes use of the rhythmic nature of the phrases and counts of three; every time a round is played, the tempo of the game is increased slightly. If a player loses tempo, they lose. It is quite easy for a long sequence of draws, or of fails to guess correctly in the second round, to result in the game reaching breakneck speed.
Many examples of on-line and stand-alone versions of this game, written in Flash, Java or JavaScript, etc. can be found on the internet.
In the Philippines, a variation called 'jack en poy' is used. This was introduced most likely during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. The complete chant in Tagalog is ''jack en poy, hali hali hoy, sino ang matalo, siya ang unggoy!'' ("jack en poy, hali hali hoy, the one who loses is a monkey!")
Due to corruption in part through Hawaiian Pidgin, Janken is known in Hawaii as 'Jan Ken Po' with the n removed from Pon.
In Brazil, the name was made into "Joquenpo" or "Joquem Po". Kids normally add a vast variety of additional "items" which are used to beat more than one sign. The most common ones are the Flame (thumb up, beats Paper and Scissors) and Rain (fingers down, beats Flame, Paper and Scissors). There are several others, often made up on the spot.

Guu Paa Janken

It is difficult to determine a victor when more than two people want to play Janken.　Guu Paa Janken was designed as a way for multiple people to play with a clear victor (or victors) resulting. This form of Janken only uses the Guu (rock) and Paa (paper) hand formations. The victors in Guu Paa Janken are those who played the hand-sign which outnumbers the other hand-sign (the original meanings/values of Guu and Paa have no meaning in this variation). The game may also be played with those in the minority being the victors; whether to play majority wins or minority wins is decided before beginning the game. Successive games of Guu Paa Janken are then played among the victors, with number participating in each game decreasing each time due to the losers being eliminated. When the number of players is reduced to two, they then play Janken to determine a winner (if the number of players had been reduced to one by playing Guu Paa Janken, then that one person would be the overall victor). Janken　is rarely played in a standard tournament form because Guu Paa Janken can be used instead.
'The following is two separate examples with 5 players in each, and the rule being Majority Wins.'
:::
::
The three who played Guu have won.
:
::::
The four who played Paa have won.
'The following is two separate examples with 5 players in each, and the rule being Minority Wins.'
::::
:
The one player who played Paa has won.
::
:::
The two who played Guu have won.

Kuma Ken (Suu ken)

"Kuma Ken" is a kind of Suu Ken. It is played mainly around the Hitoyoshi City in the Kumamoto Prefecture. It is believed to have originated in the Edo period, in the Shogun's court.
The players show their hands simultaneously, after chanting "hii, fuu, san", forming a number from 0 to 5. Whoever has chosen the largest number wins. For instance, 1 beats 0, 2 beats 1, etc. However, 0 beats 5. If both players choose the same number, it is considered a draw. Winning twice in a row is required for victory.
Some people believe it was the origin of the widely known janken, as 3 of the 6 possible hands in the game are the same, and the rules are similar.

Number	Shape	Image	Remarks
0	Make a fist.	guu.jpg	Guu
1	Extend only the thumb.	ithc.jpg
2	Extend the thumb and index.	thoki1.jpg	Choki
3	Extend the middle and ring fingers, as well as the pinky.	sann.jpg
4	Extend all the fingers except the thumb.	yonn.jpg
5	Extend all the fingers.	Paper - pa.jpg	Paa

Team play

The traditional way to play Kuma Ken is to form two teams with 5 players each. Each team sits on one side of a long table, in such a way that 5 pairs of players opposite each other are formed. For each pair, ten sticks are laid on the table. Then, each of them plays the game ten times, whoever wins collecting a stick each time. When there are no sticks left, the pairs are shifted, and the same process is repeated until everyone in each team has played against every member of the opposing team.
The team which collects more sticks out of the total of 250 is declared the winner.

Strategy

The primary strategy for Kuma Ken is to realize that playing the numbers 1, 2, or 3 is pointless. The number 5 will beat numbers 1 through 4, so at first glance, it appears that 5 is the best choice since it has the most victory possibilities. However, it is not a good idea to rely on this because the other player may realize this and play the number 0, since it is the only way to beat the number 5. To beat 0, playing the number 4 is the obvious choice because it will also beat the opponent if he/she chooses 1, 2, or 3. Once both parties in a game of Kuma Ken realize this, the game degenerates into Janken (play 0 to beat 5, play 5 to beat 4, play 4 to beat 0).

Multimedia Appearances

Janken is often used as a means of duelling in the Sega-created Alex Kidd series of action-platformers for the Master System and Genesis. Furthermore, in the NES game Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, both of the first two rounds (the rock-paper-scissors ''and'' the "look away" game) are used whenever a fight with an enemy comes up, with victory often being declared to whomever wins the look-away portion three times. Janken also makes a brief appearance in the Sony PlayStation music/rhythm game PaRappa the Rapper in a cut scene, when three of the characters (PaRappa, Katy Kat and P.J. Berri) are trying to divvy birthday party duties amongst themselves. In the music realm, the Japanese pop group Mini Moni released a single titled "Minimoni Jankenpyon!".
Instead of standard "eyecatch" sequences, the anime series Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo offers to play Janken with the viewers (this is referred to in the English dub as "Bo-bobo the Fortune Teller").

External links

'Japanese'

★ Etymological origin of Janken (Japanese site)

★ About Ken games (Japanese site)

★ Origins of Janken (Japanese site)

★ Janken in the world (Japanese site)

★ Jan Ken Pon -- Some Historical Data