By Jacob Lange
NKyTribune intern
Around the year 2011, a new toy was quickly becoming popular in the Northern Kentucky area.
The kendama, this generation’s “ball on a stick,” was quickly finding its way into local grade schools and into the hands of many children and young adults across the country.
For those who don’t know, the kendama is a traditional Japanese toy that dates back to 1777. It consists of three different sized cups, a spike, and a ball on a string, with a hole in the bottom of the ball that allows it to rest on the spike. The goal of playing with the toy is to complete tricks that end with the ball landing on the spike, or any of the three cups attached to the handle.
Jake Fischer, a Covington Catholic High School senior and Fort Wright resident, recently got back from a kendama competition in Hatsukaichi, Japan where he competed against more than 260 of the best kendama users across the world.
So, just how did Fischer master the toy and begin competing in contests across the United States and now Japan?
“When I was in the eighth grade everyone was playing with them,” Fischer said. “It was a huge fad and it just took over Northern Kentucky from there.”
Fischer added that he and his buddies would often argue over whose turn it was to play with their friend’s kendamas, before each had his own to play with.
Fischer, 17, purchased his first kendama from Kendama-Co., the Denver based company that now sponsors Fischer and many others from across the country.
“I have ADHD so it helps keep my hands busy,” he said. “I didn’t want this little toy to beat me so I just practiced and practiced.”
Once he began to master the Japanese toy he joined a Facebook group where he began posting YouTube videos of himself completing difficult tricks. Once some of his videos gained popularity through the Facebook group he started to focus, not on difficulty of the tricks, but cleanliness; explaining that’s what gets a competitor noticed.
Based on the popularity of his videos and the traction they received through the Facebook group, he was invited to a competition in Nashville, Tennessee. Kendama-Co. was hosting a competition to find new people to sponsor and take to competitions across the country.
After the competition, Fischer was given a junior-pro sponsorship from Kendama-Co. Being a junior-pro meant he was unable to travel to other competitions, but for two years he did promotions for the company, received free products to test, and was able to travel to Nashville for competitions.
He was considered a junior-pro for two years, and in August of 2014 he was told by Kendama-Co. that he would be joining their main professional team consisting of six kendama pros from across the United States. Being added to the professional Kendama-Co. team meant that Fischer would receive free travel expenses and begin attending competitions throughout the country.
He attended competitions in Spokane and Seattle, Washington, as well as Minneapolis, Minnesota. In May and June of 2015 he attended competitions in Michigan, Nashville, Tennessee, and was flown out to the Kendama-Co. headquarters in Denver, Colorado.
On July 13, he left for the Kendama World Cup 2015 in Hatsukaichi, Japan where he would spend days touring the country and taking part in the two day competition with participants from Japan, United States, Denmark, Romania and more. Participants were given a list of 100 tricks of varying degrees of difficulties with a point scale depending on the complexity of the trick.
The first day of the competition consisted of two rounds during which each competitor had three minutes to complete five tricks. Competitors were allowed to choose their tricks and the music that played during their run but Fischer said, “I was so zoned in I had no idea music was even playing.”
At the end of the first day of competition Fischer was sitting comfortably in a three-way tie for 9th place and advanced to the final round the following day. In that round, each contestant was given three minutes to complete as many tricks as they could. At the end of that round, he finished 7th in the standings, but was not satisfied with his finish and has high hopes for next year’s competition.
“I’ve never been hungrier to win anything in my entire life,” he said. “I’ll only accept losing to two people.” One of those people is Bonz Atron, Fischer’s Kendama-Co. teammate.
Fischer plans on competing for a long time, and with competitions becoming more serious there will be plenty of opportunities for him to showcase his many skills.
He plans to attend either the University of Louisville or University of Kentucky upon graduating from Covington Catholic in the spring. He wants to major in engineering with a minor in business so if Kendama-Co. wishes to expand the company outside of Denver he would have the business background needed to work for the company.
Fischer even has his own Kendama-Co. kendama in production, with a targeted release date of mid-November. This kendama will have Fischer’s signature laser inscribed into the handle and a personal logo being designed by a Denver artist.
Jacob Lange is a senior journalism major at the University of Kentucky.
It’s really great to see kendama community getting some attention in the media!
My son recently got a kendama too and loves it!