Around CHS, many students can be seen using the Kendama, an entertaining cup and ball like toy. Lucas Martinez, Tom Engelbert, Rory Mcdermott, Ben Alves and other students are well known to be seen with a Kendama in hand and a concentrated facial expression. The Kendama is a Japanese toy made up of the ken, or the sword, spike, three cups, and the tama, the ball. The tama and the ken are connected by a string, and the main objectives are to get the tama into or onto one of the three cups or spike. Martinez and Engelbert have been using the Kendama for around a total of two years and have developed a high skill level along the way.

“I started to Kendama at the same time Tom started to kendama, which was when we went with Lucas to the grand-opening of The Ken Garden, which is a kendama shop in San Francisco,” Alves said.

A variety of basic to intricate tricks can be performed on the Kendama, such as the spike, the around the world, and the candlestick. These tricks are very easy to learn as a beginner, but can take practice to perfect. However, the students here at CHS who use the Kendama are far beyond these simple tricks, and are able to perform harder tricks.

“The hardest trick that I can do is called the Lunar Flip,” Martinez said. “The idea is you make the ken balance on the tama, then you turn it so the big cup on the ken lands on the tama and balances there, this is then called a lunar. After that you proceed to push the lunar up and forward making the ken do a 360 in the air and after that rotation you catch it once more in the lunar, and then you spike it in the whole.”

In order to complete these tricks, Martinez watches videos and tries the tricks until he can do them on a regular basis. Once Martinez and his friends know that they are able to perform the trick, they often make their own videos and post them on their social media sites. A popular game that Martinez and his friends play is called Ken. This game is very similar to the basketball game Horse, except a kendama is used. The first player tries to do a trick and if it is completed the next person must complete it too. If they cannot, they receive a letter (K-E-N), and the first person to spell the word “ken” loses.

“I practice my kendama is when I am taking or trying to take notes, even during homework,” McDermott said.

As the use of the kendama has started to spread, many wonder how and where this new trend began. Martinez, Engelbert, and their group of friends first started off with yo-yoing, practicing yo-yo tricks, and even entering into competitions.

“My friends and I were originally yo-yoing, and Lucas had just recently bought a kendama. One day we went down to San Francisco for a yo-yo competition. Once there, we met up with these people using the kendamas and we ended up buying some. It was really fun so we just kept going, and got hooked to it and got other people into it apparently,” Engelbert said.

The kendama can bring many people together and also is a great way to spend free time. As it makes its way through the students of CHS and social media online, it becomes more and more commonly seen. Anyone can use the kendama and become an expert with a bit of practice and concentration.