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[ta0]

I just got this book, part of The Toy Museum series from Japan. This volume is titled Hagoita, Kites & Tops. It only has 48 pages and just 1/3 are about tops, but the photos are big and gorgeous. It also has some interesting background information (it is written in both Japanese and English). The koma section has 30 photos of tops, plus a few gyroscopes and diabolos.  Although the tops are the traditional type: finger, rope (throw) and beigoma, there are some that I had not seen before.



Jim and Eric would also be interested in the third of the book dedicated to Japanese kites. Perhaps they also like shuttlecock or badminton?  Hagoita is a similar game.

Published by Kyoto Shoin editorial (Kyoto), 1992. I could not find if the book is from a particular museum.

[ta0]

Cloth is a very unusual material on a top. These are from the book:

[the Earl of Whirl]

I don't think I have ever seen cloth of any kind on a top!

Yes, that is unusual.

[jim in paris]

great find , where did you order it ? from a regular bookshop?
or from amazon ?

jim

[ta0]

I got it through abebooks.com, which is actually a union of independent booksellers worldwide. I was lucky to find a bookstore in the US that had it, so the total cost was very reasonable ($19.50 + $4 S/H).  The book is listed in the bibliography of the "Kreisel Institute" website we discussed recently. I have another of the books on that list coming.

[Space]

wow!!!

[Lourens]

Indeed,
it is a very nice book. It is also listed in my book. The picture of the top made from cloth you show has a special history: it is made from parts of Kimonos. In Tokyo, people living in the same area had similar prints on their kimonos. You can recognize the area of its origine by seeing the top (if you have the right background information). Tops like these are very hard to find, also in Japan.
If you search on E-bay at 'spinning tops', there is someone from Japan selling this book regulary.
I add three pictures of two interesting different Japanese books about spinning tops. The one about Edo-tops is also published by the toy museum.
It is hard to get. I have heard that the origine company does not excist anymore.
Warm regards, Lourens.

[ta0]

Thanks a lot Lourens. The story about the kimonos is really interesting. I wonder if that would be a family thing, the mother, grandmother or aunt giving it as a gift to a child.

I confess I haven't yet gone through the bibliography on your book in a systematic way. Those two other books also look nice to have.

[ta0]

I got another Japanese top book:



The title says "Koma (written in red Kanji characters and again in green Hiragana characters): THE TOPS".  Except for the title and the copyright, it is all written in Japanese. It was published in 2002 by Bunkeido Co., Japan.  The author may be Masaki Ando.

Although it has only 32 pages, it has quite a few of color photographs of tops, mostly Japanese but also worldwide (including The Toycrafter).  It also has series of black and white photographs teaching how to do wrap throw tops (including beigoma) and diverse tricks.  It is interesting that it first teaches skyrocket and boomerang by landing the top on a large cardboard held on the hand!

One type of tops that called my attention were these ones:



They are launched the same way as the dropping top and the Fang kreisel (and my hook top) we had discussed before.

[lincolnrick]

Neat stuff guys.  I wish I was as dedicated to the literature as you.  Thanks.

[ta0]

I met Masaki Ando, the author of the book above, at a New Year fair in Tokyo. I bought another copy of the book so I had it with his autograph. He did the elevator trick for us:



He is at the School of Children's Studies, Shoke Gakuin University, Natori City. He is also Chairman of another Japanese Koma Association.

[casalino]

I don't know if Tops with fabrics are rare, I bought mine in 2023 at the Nagoya museum.

[ta0]

I don't know if Tops with fabrics are rare, I bought mine in 2023 at the Nagoya museum.

I didn't see you get that one  . I got one made as a tourist souvenir a few years ago:



Taka told me about a guy who he had invited to his festival who does a workshop of how to wrap a top with cloth. Traditionally, it's from the cloth of a kimono.