Players wearing period costumes competed in the ancient ball-kicking game of kemari in a Shinto shrine in Kyoto on Tuesday to celebrate the start of the New Year.
Kemari is thought to have arrived in Japan from China about 1,400 years ago. It was popular among court nobles in the Heian Period from the 8th to the 12th centuries.
On January 4th every year, it is played at Shimogamo Jinja as part of the shrine's New Year's rituals.
Eight players dressed in vividly colored Heian court costumes competed to keep a deerskin ball in the air as long as possible by kicking it back and forth.
Spectators cheered when players made fine saves to keep the ball from falling to the ground.
An elementary school girl from Aichi Prefecture said it gave her energy to watch the lively moves of the players, and that she feels it will bring her a happy 2011.
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