Jegichagi

Jegichagi is a Korean traditional outdoor game. It requires the use of people's foot and Jegi, an object used to play jegichagi. Jegi looks like a badminton shuttlecock, which is made of a smallcoin (quarter size), paper, or cloth. In Korea, children usually play alone or with friends in winter seasons, especially on Lunar New Year. Briefly explaining the rules, the player kicks a jegi up in the air and keeps on kicking to prevent from falling to the ground. In a one-to-one game, a player with the most number of consecutive kicks wins. In a group game, the players stand in a circle, and take turns kicking the Jegi. Players who fail to kick the Jegi upon receiving it and let it drop to the ground lose. As a penalty, the loser tosses the jegi at the winner so that he can kick it as he wishes. When the loser catches the jegi back with his hands, the penalty ends and he can rejoin the game. This has developed, and people combined two or three materials and made new ways of playing jegichagi. Though Jegichagi used to be a game mostly played in winter, it has become a year-round game.

History

Although there is no written record about the origin of Jegichagi, historical legends states that the game was developed from young martial artists’ training which involved kicking a small leather pouche. Often people refer jianzi, a Chinese game using a shuttlecock, as Jegichagi. However, Jegichagi has been developed in a different way.

Samguk Yusa, a collection of Korean historical legends, states that Goguryeo people was good at Cuju, which was eventually developed to be jegichagi in Korea. Also, it says that Kim Yushin of Silla stepped on and tore off Kim Chunchu's otgoreum, two long ribbon ties in Korean traditional costume, under the mask of playing jegichagi and had his sister sew it back on. Through that event, Kim Yushin's sister eventually married and became wife of Kim Chunchu, later Muyeol of Silla.