Word: kemari
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...Japanese theatergoer who knew the rules-a costume like the karaori robe in russet silk (see color] would at once suggest a Heian-period court, somewhere between A.D. 800 and 1200. The balls, woven with exquisite precision in raised white silk, refer to a Heian court game called kemari, an aristocratic and pointless kind of football with no rules. The game consisted of several players kicking a bean-stuffed ball around a courtyard in which stood certain trees-cherry, maple, pine, bamboo and (here worked in gold thread into the red ground) willow...
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