Cuju
Videos
Cuju or ts‘u-chü is an ancient Chinese football game that resembles a mix of basketball, association football, and volleyball. FIFA cites cuju as the earliest form of a kicking game for which there is
Chinese women playing cuju, by the Chinese painter Du Jin during Ming Dynasty period
One Hundred Children in the Long Spring (長春百子圖), a painting by Chinese artist Su Hanchen (蘇漢臣, active AD 1130–1160s), Song dynasty
Bronze mirror dating to the Song dynasty
Yuan dynasty illustration in Shilin Guangji by Chen Yuanjing
Kemari
Videos
Kemari is an athletic football game that was popular during the Heian and Kamakura periods of Japan. It resembles a game of keepie uppie or hacky sack.
Cuju
…made a living as cuju players. During this period only one goal post was set up in the center of the field. It influenced the development in Japan of kemari (蹴鞠), which is still played today on special occasions. The kanji writing (蹴鞠) is the same as for cuju. The Silk Road facilitated the transmission of…
A game of kemari at Tanzan Shrine
"Asukai Masanori Teaching Tokugawa Yoshimune to Play Kemari." Ukiyo-e printed by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Decorative kemari balls (Edo period), probably belonging to the Satake clan.
Kemari field at Kyoto Imperial Palace