Rules of Play

According to the rules, the winner is decided by the following combinations:

History

Janken is a type of ken. Originally, in China, ken meant fist, grip, force, or strike. This explains the name of the Chinese martial art of Kenpo. However, a game in which victory was decided by the shape of the extended hand together with a number was also called ken. It appears that this usage of ken appeared in the Sung period and it is thought to have been conceived as a competitive game or a form of gambling.

Of all the variations of ken games that arose, the one called Honken (original ken) that was the one that spread to Japan, so it called the root of Janken.

According to Shogakukan's Nihonkokugodaijiten dictionary, ken arrived in Kyuushuu in 1642, spread to the Osaka area by around the Edo period, and spread to Edo (now Tokyo) by about the Kyouhou period (around the 1720’s). Because it first arrived in Nagasaki, it was sometimes called Nagasakiken or Kiyouken (Kiyou being the old name for Nagasaki).

Honken was played between two people, each of whom would simultaneously extend 0 to 5 fingers of one hand, and at the same time predict the total number of fingers. Whoever correctly predicted the number of fingers shown was the winner. Originally, this was a game played in drinking places as a way to determine who bought the drinks or who had to take a drink. While I was in the Navy, we played a variation of this to decide who would go buy soft drinks for everyone. Each person had three paper clips behind his back. Each person would choose from one to three clips and hold them in front in a closed fist and each player would predict the total number of clips in all players’ hands. On command, all players opened their hands. The eventual loser went for the drinks.

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