also: ちくば
stilts
Walking stilts, typically made of bamboo poles with footrests. Common in traditional play and festivals.
The children were playing on stilts.
hobby horse
Only with reading ちくば
Archaic term for a toy horse, often a stick with a horse's head. Read ちくば in this sense.
Children in the past played with a hobby horse, pretending it was a real horse.
Standard kanji spelling for the common reading たけうま.
Archaic reading used for the hobby horse sense; rarely encountered in modern Japanese.
Compound of 竹 (bamboo) and 馬 (horse). The stilts sense comes from the resemblance of riding a bamboo pole to riding a horse. The hobby horse sense is a direct extension of the imagery.