Ssh Official in Oahu
THE KENDAMA CRAZE: now kids are losing them to theft Hi, everyone. The Kendama craze is starting to rear an ugly head again. I've been watching the reports come in. On Oct. 13, a 6th grader took his kendama to the park next to his home in Pearl City. An older boy took it and ran. His mom filed a police report. It's not the first. Since September we have had kendamas taken from a Windward Mall toy store's window display, a fight at Ka Makana Alii over a kendama a boy said was taken, and a 7-year-old's new kendama taken at a Makaha playground, the same day as Pearl City. Why every kid wants one: one Pearlridge store told KHON it was selling about 500 kendamas a week this summer, and another about 200. Kids are seeing trick videos on Instagram and TikTok. Kapolei hosted the first Aloha Kendama Tournament in August, and a Mililani player won the Kendama World Cup in Japan in 2016. Popular brands sell out, and a full kendama can cost about $55 to $60. Where it came from: the cup-and-ball game goes back to bilboquet in 1500s France, and may have reached Japan through the Netherlands in the Edo period. In 1918 a craftsman named Egusa Hamaji added three cups and a spike and called it the sun and moon ball. Hatsukaichi, next to Hiroshima, became its home and made 400,000 a year at its 1970s peak. It happened before: in 2013, Campbell High and Keoneula Elementary banned kendamas because students were betting them, and Hawaii News Now reported the betting caused several fights. To protect your keiki's kendama: Write your child's name on it in marker. Take a photo of it so it can be identified. Check the school's rules before it goes in a backpack. Never play for keeps. If it is taken, file a police report, then tell us at sshreport.com. Sources: reports to Stolen Stuff Hawaii; KHON2 (July 2026); Hawaii Public Radio (Aug. 2026); Hawaii News Now (2013, 2026); Honolulu Star-Advertiser (2013); Japan Tourism Agency; Japan Kendama Association. Photos: Wikimedia Commons (DC, CC BY 2.5; Jeremykemp, JeremyAStephenson and Ingo Hoffmann D, CC BY-SA 4.0). Michael Kitchens Founder & Creator Stolen Stuff Hawaii stolenstuffhawaii.com #hawaii #stolenstuffhawaii #kendama #keiki #pearlcity