Buy Kendama

Where to buy a kendama

The Bottom Line: You guys are pressed for time and don’t want to read this long page, and I’m pressed for time and am ignoring your e-mails. So here is my executive summary. By region, my most recommended sources for buying kendamas are:

Japan: Naranja, reliable service for your basic needs
Asia other than Japan: Kendama.com.tw, run by reliable extreme sports online shop company
North America: Kendama.net, full-blown kendama superstore selling wide variety of products
Europe: Love from Tokyo, bilingual shop with recently expanded inventory

Looking for a kendama for sale? Hi, there! My name’s Amren, and I may be able to help you. I’m a JET teacher at Joto High School in Tokushima, Japan. I love the kendama! My nephew in Maryland tried mine out when I was visiting my family over Thanksgiving last year, and he wanted one. When I got back to Japan I bought one and sent it to him. But then his friends wanted them. At that point I started looking Green kendama on the internet for places where they could buy them on their own. Otherwise I would have ended up as the unofficial kendama supplier for all the kids in Maryland.

I don’t like to let anything go to waste, so I thought I’d put the results of my research online here. I hope someone finds this useful. My ratings are entirely my personal opinion based on what I’ve been able to find out, and they take into account things like ease of ordering, product mix, availability, service to the extent I am familiar with it, and apparent seller trustworthiness based on their Web site disclosure. The ratings are somewhat relative to each category.

I’m not planning constant maintenance on this page, but if you’ve heard of other kendama sources, or if you have any personal experience with any of the sources listed, you can reach me at info@ this domain, and I’ll file it away for possible use in future updates. (January 2009)

Japan Physical Stores Japanese Online Japan Online in English United States Elsewhere

My Ratings: Recommended, Satisfactory, Not Recommended, Insufficient Data

Brick-&-Mortar Japan Sources

Retail Stores in Japan

Amazon.co.jp
If you’re living in Japan or visiting here, you’ve got it made, right? Well, not quite. The kendama originates in Japan, but to tell the truth, it’s considered to be kind of dorky here. Kids are more into their card trading and game machines. To the extent that you can find kendamas, they tend to be the “folk art” variety or cheap Chinese imports. Even in Japan, ordering online is probably your best bet. But here’re some ideas if you want to shop in person.

Toy Stores

Toys-R-Us is gradually expanding in Japan, and they have TK16 Masters, and according to a report, Oozoras are stocked in some outlets. I’ve also seen TK16 Masters in the toy section of Tokyu Hands and some department stores. But there are also still some small toy stores around. The best place to look for them is in “ekimae” business districts, the business streets that fan out from train stations. Due to freaky tax laws and urban development regulations in Japan these ekimae business districts are chock full of small, dying shops that are lucky to make one or two sales per day. In the United States such shops would have long ago gone out of business, but in Japan they survive until their elderly owners die, at which point they turn into convenience stores.

If you can find such an old, dusty toy store, you’ll probably find kendamas there. The owners are probably so out of it that the electronic game revolution has passed them by. The really great thing is that the kendama stock may be years (or decades) old. You can often find out-of-production models for sale. Don’t expect to find gold Mugen 3s: Iwata Mokko’s distribution was never really that good. But you might find Shin Sakuras and Shin Fujis.

Discount Variety Stores

There’s another type of store you should check out. These are the hard-to-define class of stores that I’ll call “discount variety stores.” They sometimes call themselves “depaato,” even though they are usually small shops. These shops tend to be dusty and forgotten just like the ekimae toy stores, and they sometimes have old deadstock kendamas. They may have JKA licensed kendamas and non-JKA kendamas, which can sometimes be fun. One of my favorite kendamas is a no-brand semi-JKA-style unlicensed copy that has a ball that is not completely round, smallish kozara and chuzara cups, and a really great clackety-clack sound when you use it. The small cups make it more challenging. So take a look at non-JKA kendamas if you find any. You may like them.

100-Yen Stores

You might think that 100-yen stores would be a source. Yes, you can find kendamas at some, but they are cheap Chinese versions. Daiso has a larger sized Chinese kendama that is actually pretty fun to use, although nothing like a JKA-style kendama. (Daiso charges 400 yen for this, not 100 yen).

Japan Online Sources

Amazon.co.jp

URL: http://www.amazon.co.jp/
Location: Japan
Owner: Amazon.com

Sellers

A few sellers offer kendamas on Amazon.co.jp in the Toy and Hobby section. Sticking to those who offer JKA licensed kendamas, however, it pretty much narrows down to these three:

Toy Stadium O-Kawaya:
Nakatani Shoten
Omocha no Uta Pyon

JKA Kendamas

TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood): ¥987
Shin Sakura & Fuji: There are a few of these discontinued models sold on Amazon.co.jp, at prices ranging from ¥1,800 to ¥3,980.

Other Products

Sellers on Amazon.co.jp offer a number of other kendama related items, such as non-JKA kendamas, plastic kendamas and mini kendama cell phone straps.

Payment and Shipping

Amazon accepts the normal payment methods, but toy and hobby items cannot generally be shipped abroad.

Comments

Ordering from Amazon.co.jp is probably the easiest way to get a JKA kendama if you live in Japan, but you’re stuck with the TK16 Master. If you want an Oozora, you’re out of luck.

Japan Kendama Association

JKA Screenshot
URL: http://www.kendamakyokai.com/
Location: Japan
Owner: Japan NPO Japan Kendama Association (Nihon Kendama Kyokai)

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): ¥1,050
TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood): ¥1,000
TK16 Junior (red): ¥1,000 (Scaled down TK16 Masters that have a JKA sticker, but cannot be used in competition; they’re intended for little kids learning the kendama)
Rokurosen (red, blue): ¥1,600 (A Shin Fuji variation with painted latitude lines on a raw wood ball)
Shin Fuji (red, blue, black, raw wood): ¥1,600

Other Products

The JKA store offers innumerable kendama variations and trinkets, including mini and jumbo kendamas, kendama books, and kendama DVDs.

Comments

Although the JKA seems the perfect place to get your kendama from, given that they even have a stock of out-of-production models, the “online store” is actually just a catalog. If you want to actually buy anything, there’s no shopping cart or online payment system. They just ask you to e-mail them with a list of what you want, and they’ll get back to you.

Kendama.com

Kemdama.com
URL: http://www.kendama.com/
Location: Japan
Owner: Shigeo Tanabe, “Touch-san”

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): ¥1,050

Other Products

Mr. Tanabe also sells the 101 Kendama Tricks book from the JKA, probably the best Japanese kendama book for those who can’t read Japanese beause it’s mostly photos.

Comments

Shigeo Tanabe (Touch-san) is a 40- or 50-something employee of NTT Data and a 6-dan kendama ace who originally developed the official Japan Kendama Association Web site in 1997. Touch-san bailed out as JKA webmaster in 2002 and launched Kendama.com (props for snagging that domain, Touch-san!). Without Touch-san to keep an eye on things the JKA guys promptly forgot to renew their domain, kendama.net, which they lost (the JKA site now resides at kendamakyokai.com).

So what about getting your kendama from Touch-san? That might not be such a good idea, since the procedure is almost as much of a hassle as ordering from the JKA, no shopping cart, no online payment. The one improvement over the JKA Web site is that Mr. Touch provides an online form, so you don’t have to e-mail him. He will then send you an invoice, which you need to pay with a bank transfer. However, Mr. Touch advises that his day gig may prevent him from promptly responding to your order. Taking all this into account, I suspect Touch-san hasn’t sold a kendama in years.

Naranja

Naranja Juggling
URL: http://www.naranja.co.jp/
Location: Japan
Owner: Naranja, Inc.

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): ¥1,050
TK16 Master: (red, blue, black, raw wood): ¥1,050
Shin Fuji: (raw wood): ¥1,155

Other Products

Iwata Mokko kendama stands
Jumbo kendamas
5-cup kendamas (the two Yamagata Koubou designs)
Most of the available Japanese language kendama books and CDs

Comments

Naranja (pronounced “naranha”) is a Tokyo juggling supplies shop that also sells balloon supplies and bartending supplies. Their service is excellent, they ship promptly, they call you up on the phone to explain any problems, and their kendama product selection almost equals that of the JKA store, except that you can actually order it online. This is the most recommended kendama source in Japan if they have what you’re looking for.

I put Naranja in the Japanese section, even though they will in fact ship overseas. Their e-commerce system is completely in Japanese, so you do need to figure out what you want from their Japanese pages and e-mail them with your order. In addition, they do not accept credit card or PayPal payments, for a first order at least. You need to do an old fashioned international bank transfer. Unless you need a few dozen kendamas, this is expensive and a major hassle. They have apparently had chargeback problems in the past, and the idiots who did that have spoiled it for everybody.

Rakuten Ichiba

Rakuten Ichiba
URL: http://www.rakuten.co.jp/
Location: Japan
Owner: Rakuten, Inc.

Comments

Rakuten Ichiba is one of the largest internet companies in Japan. Like Yahoo! Japan they own a professional baseball team. They started out as an e-commerce enabling site: an online shopping mall that aggregates zillions of small retailers. Rakuten goes up against both Yahoo! Japan and Amazon.co.jp. Rakuten has expanded into auctions, local listings and other internet businesses.

There seem to be more JKA licensed kendamas on Rakuten than on Yahoo! Auctions, and the site is easier to use than Yahoo.

Wood Warlock

Wood Wood Warlock
URL: http://www.woodwarlock.jp/
Location: Japan
Owner: WoodWarlock Co., Ltd.

JKA Kendamas

TK16 Master (red, blue, green, raw wood): ¥1,260

Other Products

Wood Warlock is a brick-and-mortar store selling wood toys and a number of other items in the general category of eco/green children’s and interior items.

Comments

The Wood Warlock online shop is built on the Rakuten Ichiba platform. The price is on the high side for TK16 Masters, but the shop has a reliable online store, and you might find some other gizmos you want to order at the same time.

Yahoo! Auctions

Amazon.co.jp
URL: http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/
Location: Japan
Owner: Yahoo! Japan

Comments

Yahoo! Auctions is the eBay of Japan. Yahoo ramped up their auction service before eBay entered the market, and by the time eBay showed up, Yahoo had critical mass. eBay later pulled out, and has more recently signed a deal with Yahoo! Japan to list some eBay auctions on Yahoo! Auctions.

You can find JKA licensed kendamas on Yahoo! Auctions from time to time. There are usually a few TK16 Masters. And recently someone has been putting up deadstock Mugen 3s, one wine and one gold per week. The wines have gone for ¥5,099 and ¥6,500 and the golds for ¥5,750 and ¥5,000 in two recent weeks. The reason why the prices tend to cluster just above ¥5,000 is that Yahoo! Auctions requires that you register and pay a monthly fee to bid on auctions, even for months you don’t bid on anything. This is obviously controversial, and Yahoo finally broke down and eliminated the fee — as long as you don’t bid above ¥4,999. So when the price hits ¥5,000 the competition thins out abruptly and prices settle down. In all the above Mugen auctions, yours truly bid ¥4,999, and then was blocked from further bidding.

There are other things about Yahoo! Auctions that make it more of a hassle to use than eBay, even if you can deal with the Japanese language. Besides the fees, you can’t snipe. English language sniping software doesn’t work, and sniping in general is ineffective because the auction is extended 5 minutes if bids are received 5 minutes before closing. If you must buy something on Yahoo! Auctions and don’t want to pay their monthly fee, try an auction agent in Japan, like the Hammer Price chain of stores, and let them handle purchases and sales. They will take a fee and a percentage, but it may turn out to be cheaper than months of unused Yahoo! Auctions membership fees.

Japan-based English Language Sources

Goods from Japan.com

Goods from Japan
URL: http://www.goodsfromjapan.com/
Location: U.K.
Owner: Soccerphile Ltd.

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red): $17.65
TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood): $17.65
Mugen Kotobuki (red): $39.50 (The Kotobuki is a discontinued JKA style kendama with gold dust speckles, but it does not have the JKA seal)
Shin Sakura (red): $21.65

Comments

Goods from Japan is an online shop selling all sorts of Japanese products. The site’s owner is Soccerphile, Ltd., founded in 1999 in London. Soccerphile owns a bunch of sites, including a soccer site and a number of travel or local interest sites. I’m putting this site under the Japan category because the Goods from Japan Web site claims to have offices in in Japan (Aichi Prefecture) as well as the U.K. and the U.S. (another Soccerphile site lists an office in China). Soccerphile claims to be a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, although they are not listed under the company name in the current membership list on the ACCJ Web site.

Japan-Zone Japan Store

Japan Zone Store
URL: http://www.japan-zone.com/
Location: Japan
Owner: Mark McBennett

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): $23.95
TK16 Master (red): $27.95

Comments

Japan Zone is a Japan information and travel site, dating service, and online store, founded by expat Mark McBennett. The prices are a bit high, especially for the TK16 Masters.

United States Online Sources

eBay

eBay
URL: http://www.ebay.com/
Location: United States
Owner: eBay Inc.

Comments

There are occasionally some JKA official kendamas on eBay. It’s worth checking out if you are a regular eBay user. Most of the kendamas for sale on eBay are not the JKA licensed ones, but I’ve seen some interesting novelty kendamas that you may want to round out your collection.

Kendama.net

URL: http://kendama.net/
Location: United States
Owner: Kendama, Inc.

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green, raw wood): $19.95
TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood): $17.95
Mugen (7 colors plus red Kotobuki): $70 and up
Shin Fuji (11 colors, including Rokorosens): $23
Shin Sakura (red, blue, black, raw wood): $28

Other Products

Kendama replacement parts (strings, beads, balls)
Mini, jumbo and 5-cup kendamas
Generic competition style kendamas for $14
Zipper pulls

Payment and Shipping

Shipping, via USPS, is separate.

Comments

Kendama.net sells virtually every JKA kendama ever made. The prices on current models are quite good, although the prices on discontinued “collector’s” models are high, particularly the Mugens (now I know who’s outbidding me on Yahoo! Auction!). The “commodity” kendama they sell for $13.95 looks like a good option for the cash strapped. The site also has some editorial content, such as a feature on the Yatterman movie.

Kendama Spot

Kendama Spot
URL: http://kendamaspot.com/
Location: United States
Owner: Paul Grimes DBA Kendamaspot

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): $20
TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood): $18.00
Shin Fuji (red, blue, black, raw wood): $20

Other Products

Kendama replacement strings and beads: $3.00 for 5 or $10.00 for 10

Payment and Shipping

Shipping, via USPS, is separate.

Comments

Kendama Spot (or is it KendamaSpot?) is a blog with some nice nice kendama tutorials founded in mid 2007 by sole proprietor Paul Grimes, a married 30-something software engineer at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, and a juggling hobbyist. 20ish Brian Miller is Paul’s assistant in maintaining the site. The blog has a store in the form of blog posts linking to a PayPal shopping cart system. Although early in January 2009 the inventory was spotty, with only two colors of Oozoras in stock, Paul now tells me that he is fully stocked, as reflected in the product list above. Shipping is sometimes delayed if PayPal cannot confirm the customer’s mailing address.

Kendama USA

Kendama USA
URL: http://kendama.wordpress.com/
Location: United States
Owner: Jeremy Stephenson

JKA Kendamas

TK16 Master: (red, blue, black, raw wood): $20

Comments

Kendama USA is set up as a WordPress.com blog with few posts, linked to a Bigcartel shop selling (at this writing) four colors of TK16 Masters, slightly pricey since the TK16s are usually a couple of bucks cheaper than Oozoras.. Owner Jeremy Stephenson is a photographer who launched the site in January 2008, apparently operating as a sole proprietor. Jeremy has worked for the rollerblading magazine Be-Mag, and his site is marketing kendamas in the manner of skateboarder and rollerblader products, complete with “kendama team” and videos. Jeremy has some sort of relationship with a rollerblade shop called RollMart, which also lists a blue TK16 Master in their online shop at http://rollmartshop.com/.

The Rest of the World

Alternative113.com

URL: http://www.alternative113.com/
Location: Canada
Owner: Alternative Sports Inc.

JKA Kendamas

None

Other Products

Emeska kendama

Comments

In general I’ve only listed sources that sell the JKA licensed competition kendamas, but this skateboarding shop sells a kendama from a Canadian outfit called Emeska, and seems to be the only source for it. It looks like a knock-off of a JKA kendama. There is an Emeska YouTube channel with a video and an avatar that shows four colors (black, raw wood, red and light blue). The URL given seems to be dead. The mystery of the Emeska: Is this a hoax? We may never know. If you’re out there, Emeska maker, contact me!

Grindhouse Online Skateshop

URL: http://www.grindhouse.eu/
Location: Germany
Owner: [To come]

JKA Kendamas

[To come]

Comments

[To come]

Kendama.com.tw

URL: http://www.kendama.com.tw/
Location: Taiwan
Owner: Ai Piao Erh Co., Ltd.

JKA Kendamas

TK16 Master (black): NT$720
Oozora (red, blue, raw wood): NT$720
Shin Fuji (black, red, blue, light blue, green, yellow-orange): NT$720

Other Products

Folk kendamas
Mini Kendamas
Kendama cell phone straps

Comments

This is a Taiwanese site devoted to the kendama, with photos and videos, as well as a shop. The site’s operator is involved in other online ventures, including a large online shop and forum serving surfers, kiteboarders, skateboarders, rockclimbers, and participants in other adventure and extreme sports.

The kendama “shop” is a section of their forums where posts are made for each product that they sell.

Kendama.cz

URL: http://www.kendama.cz/
Location: Czech Republic
Owner: Miroslav Šiřina

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): €18

Comments

Miroslav has recently add an English section to his shop. He appears to be one guy selling kendama as an informal side business, along the lines of Kendama Spot. The site is set up as a simple blog, but I can’t read most of the text, so I’m not rating the site.

Kendama.de

URL: http://www.kendama.de/
Location: Germany
Owner: Sebastian Hohentanner

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, green): €18.96
TK16 Master (red, blue, black, raw wood, ): €18.96
Shin Fuji (black, blue, raw wood): €18.96

Comments

Munich resident Sebastian Hohentanner founded Kendama.de late in 2008. The site includes a shop, background information about the kendama and embeded videos. Sebastian also owns the Austrian domain Kendama.at, which is redirected to Kendama.de

Kendama.pl

Kendama.jp
URL: http://kendama.pl/
Location: Poland
Owner: Undisclosed

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (unknown colors): 63 złoty

Comments

Kendama.pl is very similar to Kendama.cz, and there seems to be a possible relationship between the two, with someone who seems to be Miroslav commenting in the Kendama.pl forums. I’m not sure that Kendama.cz even sells kendamas; perhaps Miraslav is handling their orders. Again, I don’t know enough about what is going on here to rate it.

Kendama World

Kendama World
URL: http://www.kendama-world.com/
Location: U.K.
Owner: Peter Thake DBA New Heart Trading

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (Red): £15.99 or €18.96 (currently out of stock)
TK16 Master (Red): £16.99 or €20.15 (currently out of stock, more “due early February 2009″)

Other Products

Kendama replacement strings and beads (5 pack): £1.59 or €1.89 (minimal stock)
Yomega Star Catch plastic kendamas (various colors): £6.99 or €8.29 (minimal stock)

Payment and Shipping

PayPal, credit cards, and other methods. Shipping costs unknown (you have to put something in the shopping cart to find out the shipping costs, but none of the JKA kendamas are in stock).

Comments

The Web site has something of a ghost town feel to it, with almost nothing in stock (well, they have five packs of strings left, plus some plastic kendamas). Discontinued models like the Sakura and Mugen live on in the site’s catalog, taunting customers with models that they cannot order. The overall feel is like a side business that didn’t get traction, but remains in a vegetative state. Residents of the U.K. might want to keep an eye on this site, but in general it seems to be dying.

The owner of Kendama World also operates a number of other Web sites devoted to the sale of “skill toys” like yo-yos and boomerangs. The yo-yo business seems to be the most successful, perhaps accounting for the relative abandonment of the kendama site. The owner received a heart transplant a few years back, which explains his DBA of “New Heart Trading.”

Love from Tokyo

Love from Tokyo
URL: http://www.lovefromtokyo.com/
Location: France
Owner: Le Société Love from the Web/Emmanuelle Balayet

JKA Kendamas

Oozora: (red, blue, green): €18.50
TK16 Master (red): €18.50

Other Products

TK Junior (red): €16.50
Toy kendama (red): €8

Comments

Love from Tokyo is a Grenoble-based French language online store selling products from Japan, and is associated with Kendama.fr, a French language site that has a blog and various information about the kendama, as well as a kendama sales widget in its sidebar connecting to Love from Tokyo. Of course, being French, they can’t resist calling the kendama “le bilboquet Japonais.” Owner Emmanuelle tells me that they can ship all over Europe, and she has plans for an English version of the site.

In the queue:

http://thailandkendama.wordpress.com/
http://www.oddballs.co.uk/
http://kendamacn.com/
http://kendamamalaysia.blogspot.com/
http://rollmartshop.com/kendama.html
http://www.hedonskate.com/
http://ice-community.blogspot.com/2009/01/get-your-kendama.html
http://www.grindhouse.eu/srcontent/module/20/product/1850.html
http://www.toy-wholesaler.jp/
http://www.flowcircusstore.com/
http://www.kendama.lt/
http://www.ipureshop.com/