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« A history of Badminton » retrace, en anglais, l’histoire de ce sport, depuis ses origines, dans l’ Asie antique, jusqu’à son statut de sport olympique dans les années 70. Un ouvrage très documenté et riche en illustration écrit par un amoureux de badminton. Déjà publié chez Publibook en français.

Sujets

Sciences humaines

Philosophie et théologie

Bádminton

Sciences humaines et sociales

Badminton

Informations

Publié par	publibook
Date de parution	30 mars 2012
Nombre de lectures	1
EAN13	9782748381085
Langue	Français
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0097€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Badminton : An Illustrated History
Jean-Yves Guillain
Publibook

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Chapter 1. Universal and Distant origins

The first traces of a game involving the use of a shuttlecock can be found in Asia, and specifically in China.
Truths and myths surrounding the Chinese shuttlecock game
It supposedly has its origins in T’su-chü, a Football game created 2,500 years B.C at the time of the legendary Huang-Di (called The Yellow Emperor) in order to improve the skills of soldiers fighting Chi-You, the leader of the Miao people. According to the legend, Huang-Di laid down the foundations of Chinese civilisation, from the writing to Taoism, as well as the first medical treatise. This game, played with a round leather object filled with hair and mane, would achieve overnight popularity, inspiring poetic songs about heroes admired as gods.

With rules similar to Football the game with the shuttlecock called Ti-jian-zi consists of returning a shuttlecock with the foot. The kick can be executed either with the toe or the heel, with the foot or the knee.

This game exists on two levels : the players can return the shuttlecock from a stationary position and with one foot only. These players are called “little warriors”. On a higher level, the “big warriors” favour kicking the shuttlecock while jumping off the ground.

This practice is very popular at the time of the Han and Tang dynasties (from 206 B.C to 907 A.D). Gradually, the game abandons its military context to become a winter sport performed by children in order to keep their bodies warm. In the 13th century, after the Sung dynasty, the game would adopt the name of Chien-tsu deriving from a Chinese expression meaning “arrow”, which sounds the same as the word “shuttlecock”.

The game develops over the following centuries to such an extent that it became one of the most sought-after physical activities in the Chinese Empire, regardless of sex and social class.

Its fame would spread as far as Europe as the article “The game of the shuttlecock in China” published by F. Dillaye in Le Journal de la Jeunesse testifies in 1875. He disapproves of this game due to an insufficiently feminine character : “ I confess that it seems to be easier to play the Japanese shuttlecock game than its Chinese equivalent, although in the Celestial Empire this game is preferred by women and children. Don’t these strange players think of throwing the shuttlecock with the sole of their laced-boot ? Oh dear, maidens of China, this is so unsuitable ! No matter how much you tell me that your shuttlecock made out of a piece of leather rolled into a ball, threaded with metal strands to make it heavier and ornamented with three long feathers inserted into pierced holes cannot be played with a racket, I don’t accept your excuses. Take after our young French maidens ; remain graceful at all times”.

Over the centuries the shuttlecock has been made of various materials. The feathers come from chickens but the base is made out of pieces of wool, leather or snake skin. It is weighted down with little pieces of metal or coins.

The spreading of the “shuttlecock-kicking” game to other Asian territories
From China the “shuttlecock-kicking” game migrates to other Asian countries.
In Taiwan, shuttlecock-kicking evolves particularly at the time of the Han dynasty (206 B.C to 220 A.D) and is today one of the most popular of traditional sports. In Korea, the game is called Jeigi-chagi . At the end of the 19 th century, Stewart Culin, the traditional game specialist states that the shuttlecock is made from a cotton ball flattened and filled with ashes or clay with a pheasant’s feather stuck in the top. In winter, the game is a favourite pastime of shopkeepers who appreciate this efficient way of keeping their feet warm.

In Vietnam wood carvings of shuttlecock players were found in temples dating back to the 17 th century. A century earlier a poet would praise the town of Hanoi by describing its attractive features and its continuous animation :

“ The sound of flutes springing from the palace makes the moonlight tremble,
The drums in watch towers urge the flowers to open.
The markets are more and more animated,
The streets rival one another in beauty,
Young men tuck up their tunics and play shirtless shuttlecock….”

(“Spring in the royal city”, 1508, Nguyen Gian Thanh).

We come across the shuttlecock game also in Macao where it is called Chiquia and in Malaysia under the name of Chap-teh where the feathers are replaced by the marzipan or hibiscus flower.

The game is also played in Thailand. The English governess at the Royal Court, Anna Harriette Leonowens indeed described it as one of the most popular sports along with boxing, horse-racing and croquet ( The English Governess at the Siamese Court being Recollections of Six Years in the Royal Palace at Bangkok , 1870).

In fact variations of the shuttlecock game exist in Asia. The Miao people, between China and Thailand, prefer to use a wooden bat carved in a primitive fashion to play with a shuttlecock made of bamboo (called nbi ) into which are inserted three feathers.

It is at this point that the game starts to resemble the shuttlecock game with wooden racket adopted by the Japanese for many centuries.

In Japan : from game to ritual
Japan has been a keen participant of the shuttlecock game for a long time. But unlike the Celestial Empire, as if to distinguish itself better, the country of the Rising Sun plays it with a wooden bat called hagoita.

The crown Prince Sadafusa’s newspaper mentions a shuttlecock event played at the court in 1432 between two teams, one feminine the other masculine. The game undergoes further transformation during the Muromachi period (1338 – 1573), when the racket adopts a trapezoidal shape. During this time, to commemorate the New Year, there is a match at the Royal Palace called Kokinoko shôbu.

The bats are ornamented with traditional drawings. They originally represent sabres, jewels or gods. Colours and delicate patterns with gold or silver lining would be added around the time of Genroku (1688 – 1704, Edo period). They depict scenes representing the sagichô, a New Year ritual taking place the 15 th and 18 th of January at the Imperial Palace. Some eyewitness accounts relate that the bats ( sagichô hagoita) are sometimes thrown into the fire with other offerings. Another author, Saikaku, recounts that in 1692 “shuttlecock boards” made in Kyoto are sold at the great end of year market. As the bats become more and more ornamented their recreational use declined ; from being leisure instruments they would become essentially ornaments for young girls to celebrate the New Year.

In order to play this game ( Hanetsuki), the Japanese use a shuttlecock comprising a small rounded coin and feathers. The shape of the shuttlecock, resembling the head of a dragonfly when hit, is explained by its use as a device to protect children from mosquito bites. The game can also have as its source the ritual of throwing soya beans on the last day of winter - the original name of the bat being “racket for barbaric demons” and used to chase away evil spirits. Later, it is used to throw the seed of the soap-berry tree into which several small feathers are fastened (hence their name hane ).

The shuttlecocks are also referred to as “small barbaric demons”. Indeed, in his book Segen mondô published in 1544, Ichijô Furuya refers to the shuttlecock game as “the game of the little barbaric demons”. The shuttlecock was also be made out of pieces of bamboo cut into strings the width of a hair or even small trunks of bamboo filled with paper.

Officially, this game can be played in two ways ; the Oibane game (literally “shuttlecock-chasing”) involves the use of a minimum of two players taking it in turns to send each other the shuttlecock ; the Tsukibane game (or “shuttlecock-hitting”) for one player only, consists of bouncing the shuttlecock off his racket as many times as possible.
Traces of the shuttlecock game in North America
The shuttlecock game is not confined to Asia only. It has long been played in various parts of America, although in a variety of forms.

It is one of the favourite games of several of the North-American Indian tribes. The Zuñi (from the region of New Mexico) play with shuttlecocks made of corn husks and pierced with feathers. Indeed, one of these feathers has been found in a cave dwelling house in the Chelly Canyon.

The Po-ke-an uses green corn husks neatly interlaced and wrapped into a flat square about an inch to two inches square, and on one side is placed two upright feathers. The shuttlecock is hit with the palm of the hand. It must stay as long as possible in the air while the players encourage each other by counting aloud in their native language : “ to-pa, quil-e, hi, a-we-ta, ap-ti…”. A variation of this game, the Po-ki-nanane , is so-called because of the noise produced by the contact between hand and shuttlecock is similar to the noise of the tread of a jack rabbit upon frozen snow. The rules are very basic. The participants must hit a pre-determined number of strikes : “One bets that he can toss the shuttlecock a given number of times. While ten is the number specially associated with the game, the wagers are often made for twenty, fifty, and sometimes a hundred throws. In case of failure the other player tries his skill, each party alternating in