Picking up the kendama, Jin moved it in every direction, testing its weight and balance. The wooden ball, tethered by a cotton string, swayed in rhythm with his movements.
Then, with a sudden motion—
"Hup."
"Oh!"
"Ah."
"My."
He had performed a technique called a swinging spike, or furiken. It involved swinging the ball like a pendulum and catching it on the pointed tip of the toy, known as the spike. Jin pulled off the trick on his very first attempt.
"Jin-sama, that was amazing!"
"It's been a while, so I wasn't sure I could still do it," Jin admitted.
He tried again, but this time he missed.
"One more time."
By the end of his practice, Jin had managed to succeed seven out of ten times.
"Let's see here. Let me give it a try," Reinhard said, stepping forward. Jin handed him the toy.
"You should probably start with the large cup..."
But Reinhard went straight for a swinging spike.
"Ouch!"
The ball smacked him right in the face.
"Rai-nii, are you okay?...Healing!"
"Ow, ow... Thank you, Elsa. This is surprisingly difficult."
"That’s why I was trying to tell you to start with the large cup."
Jin took the kendama back and held it sideways, catching the ball on the widest surface, known as the large cup.
"Even this takes practice. You have to use your arms and knees as cushions so the ball doesn't bounce off."
"Jin-nii, let me try," Elsa said, reaching out. Jin handed her the toy.
"Um... like this?"
With a gentle flick of her wrist, Elsa swung the spike and caught the rising ball on the large cup. As she did, she dipped her knees perfectly to absorb the impact, keeping the ball from bouncing.
"Oh, nicely done!" Jin praised.
Elsa proved to have a natural knack for the game. After a few more tries, she had already mastered the technique, even successfully catching the ball on the small cup—the one on the opposite side of the large cup.
Meanwhile, Reinhard was still struggling.
"Hup!...Ah, no good."
He was unexpectedly clumsy when it came to this sort of play.
After enjoying the kendama for a while, Jin remembered the reason they had come to the workshop.
"Let's see..."
Jin scanned the workshop until his eyes landed on a corner where small wooden goods were being crafted.
"Excuse me, Kuroda-san, would you mind if I used these tools for a moment?"
The workshop master, Tazza Kuroda, gave his permission, and Jin immediately set to work.
"The planes are roughly the same. The saws are pull-cut types, too..."
In the West, many planes and saws were designed to cut on the push, but the tools here were the pull-cut style Jin was most comfortable with.
"Alright, I'll use this square timber."
Seeing Jin start a project, Elsa and Reinhard stopped their kendama practice and moved closer to watch.
"Jin, what are you making? That's quite a detailed design."
"Just watch. To arrange these at equal intervals..."
Jin took two pieces of square timber, each about thirty centimeters long, and began carving grooves into them at precise intervals.
"...A ladder toy?"
What Jin was making looked like a miniature ladder.
"It is a ladder, but that's not all it is."
For the rungs, he used smaller pieces of square timber that fit perfectly into the grooves.
"Good, good. That fits."
Jin hummed, pleased to find that his woodworking skills hadn't grown rusty.
"Now I just need to make the blocks..." he muttered to himself as his hands flew.
Watching from nearby, Elsa and Reiko recognized the look on his face. This was Jin in high spirits, so they watched over him in silence.
"Done."
It had taken about an hour.
"The materials here were a big help, Kuroda-san," Jin said, thanking the master.
"So, what exactly did you make?"
Everyone who had been watching was dying of curiosity.
"It's a toy called a 'ladder climber'."
The ladder stood vertically on a square wooden base. When Jin placed a small wooden block at the very top—
"Ah!"
"Oh!"
"That's fascinating!"
Elsa, Kuroda, and Mii all let out exclamations of surprise. The block tumbled down the rungs in a rhythmic rotation, looking for all the world like a little acrobat performing a stunt.
"It worked on the first try. My skills are still sharp," Jin said, satisfied.
"Ho ho... Is this another toy from your hometown, Jin?" Reinhard asked, peering at the mechanism.
"That's right. I used to make these back in the day since you only need some square timber and scraps."
"I see..."
Tazza Kuroda spoke up, looking impressed. "Jin-sama, would you mind if I produced these for the children?"
"Not at all. If you do, it might be fun to paint the blocks different colors or add little drawings."
"A wonderful idea."
"As expected of Jin-sama!"
In exchange for the design idea, Jin was given a large supply of miso and alum. Alum was a valuable find since it couldn't be mined on Hourai Island, and since miso flavors varied by region, he was happy to have a local variety.
With that, their visit for the day came to an end.
"Darn it! Why can't I get this?"
As a memento of their visit, everyone had received a kendama. Reinhard practiced every chance he got, but he didn't seem to be making much progress.
"Rai-nii, your shoulders are too stiff," Elsa observed.
Elsa, on the other hand, had already mastered a trick called 'Around the World,' which involved moving the ball between the large, small, and medium cups before finishing on the spike. She was succeeding about thirty percent of the time.
And then there was Reiko.
"Father, is this the correct way to do it?"
"A-Ah... yes, that's exactly it..."
Reiko had already mastered every single technique Jin knew, maintaining a success rate of nearly one hundred percent.