By Porter Lang
Start with the board. A hagoita is a flat paddle of paulownia wood, close to a trapezoid, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s traditional-crafts site says makers use nearly the whole of it. Put a portrait on one side and it becomes a New Year decoration. Put a shuttlecock beside it and it is a game.
The game first
Wikipedia, the open encyclopaedia, describes hanetsuki as a traditional game like badminton without a net. Players use the paddle, called a hagoita, and a brightly coloured shuttlecock, the hane. It is often played by girls at the New Year, though anyone can play. Players who miss are marked on the face with India ink, according to the same article, and the longer the shuttlecock stays up the more protection from mosquitoes players are said to get in the coming year. Wikipedia adds that hanetsuki is less popular than it was, while decorated hagoita are still sold across Japan.
How old the paddle is
The Taito ward craft centre, a municipal source, says references to battledores are recorded as early as the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573). It says the game began with the nobility and spread to ordinary people in the Edo period. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s site gives a specific date: on the fifth day of the first month in the fourth year of the Eikyo era (1429 to 1441), imperial family members, aristocrats and attendants played a game between teams of men and women. It also lists older names for the paddle and shuttlecock, among them Kogiita and Hanekoita for the paddle.
Our reading: the court game came first, and the decorated paddle came much later, once townspeople had something to put on it.
How the picture is built
This is the part that makes an oshi-e hagoita different from a painted board. The Taito centre calls oshi-e “padded collages” with a three-dimensional quality, developed in the Edo period by combining two older ideas: cloth fixed to a thick paper mat, and cloth stuffed with cotton. The Tokyo site lists the materials: paulownia for the paddle, silk and cotton fabric for the picture, cotton wadding for the fill and silk thread for hair.
It also gives the steps. Cotton wadding is stuffed between a stencil outline and a fabric base. Each small element is backed with Japanese paper, using a spatula and paste. Faces are smoothed with successive layers of gofun, a powder of crushed seashell, and the eyes, mouth and nose are painted with a fine brush. The finished oshi-e are pasted onto the board. The site says designers plan their work after seeing live kabuki and Nichibu dance performances, because dynamic scenes are hard to reproduce, and that the faces follow changing fashions.
Why kabuki
The Tokyo site says that in the Bunka and Bunsei eras (1804 to 1829) a kabuki boom coincided with active woodblock artists, and that yakusha hagoita, which show famous actors, sold according to each year’s popular actor. The Taito centre says they “call to mind the popular culture of Edoites”.
Why anyone buys one
The sources do not agree on the purpose, which is worth knowing before you read a caption. The Tokyo site says hanetsuki is played to safeguard people’s health and that after the 17th century hagoita were presented to girls on their birthdays. It describes them today as New Year lucky charms for girls and collectors’ items for kabuki fans. Koyomi Japan, a seasonal-events calendar, says they were traditionally given to wish a daughter a healthy year and are bought now as New Year decorations. A travel blog on a luggage-storage company’s site says the paddles were said to bat away bad spirits. We report all three.
The December fair
Koyomi Japan says a hagoita market is held every 17 to 19 December at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, and that the dates are fixed. In 2026 that is Thursday 17 to Saturday 19 December. Stalls fill the temple grounds, and the page calls it a good first taste of the Japanese New Year. It says the fair is held around 18 December, described as the last temple day of the year for the temple’s Kannon. We leave that there as a calendar note. The same page says stall-holders sometimes clap a rhythm when a large battledore sells.
The Tokyo site gives the market the same three days and puts it on the temple grounds in Taito ward; it does not use the name Hagoita-ichi. It also gives where Edo oshi-e hagoita are mainly made: Sumida, Koto and Katsushika wards. It records a Tokyo certification date of 15 July 1985. Its contact is the Tokyo Hina Doll Manufacturing Association.
Dates in order
- 1336 to 1573: first recorded references to battledores, according to the Taito ward craft centre.
- 1429 to 1441, the Eikyo era: the court game on the fifth day of the first month, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
- 17th century onward: hagoita presented to girls on birthdays and the oshi-e technique develops, according to the same site.
- 1804 to 1829: kabuki boom and yakusha hagoita, according to the same site.
- 15 July 1985: Tokyo certification of Edo oshi-e hagoita, according to the same site.
- 17 to 19 December 2026: the Asakusa market, according to Koyomi Japan (page last updated 26 September 2026).
Side by side
The Taito centre says the Edo period ran 1603 to 1867. The Tokyo site and the luggage-company blog use 1603 to 1868. The blog says the fair itself “dates back to the Edo period”; the Tokyo site says only that a market is held now. We could not find an older source for the fair’s start.
What kind of sources these are
Two Tokyo government sources (the metropolitan crafts site and the Taito ward centre); Wikipedia; Koyomi Japan, a calendar website; and a promotional travel blog.
Questions a buyer would ask
Where are the paddles made? The Tokyo site names Sumida, Koto and Katsushika wards as the main areas for the Edo oshi-e style.
What are the faces made of? The Tokyo site says layered gofun, a crushed-shell powder, painted with a fine brush.
What we left out
Prices, stall counts, opening hours, makers’ names, and a claim in the blog about craftspeople gathering from across Japan, which no other page repeats.
Quick answers
When is the Hagoita-ichi in 2026?
Koyomi Japan, a calendar website, says the hagoita market at Sensoji in Asakusa runs 17 to 19 December 2026.
What is oshi-e?
According to the Taito ward craft centre, it is a padded collage with a three-dimensional quality, made from cloth fixed to thick paper or stuffed with cotton.
What is a hagoita?
Wikipedia says it is the paddle used in hanetsuki, a New Year game like badminton, and decorated versions are sold across Japan.
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Roam first. Shop later.