kemari; ancient Japanese court football
A historical ball game played by courtiers in the Heian period, where players cooperatively keep a deerskin ball in the air without letting it touch the ground.
Kemari is a pastime of the Heian-period nobility.
京都の神社で蹴鞠の実演を見ました。
I saw a kemari demonstration at a shrine in Kyoto.
Standard kanji spelling for the ancient court game.
Kana spelling is common in explanatory contexts.
From Chinese 蹴鞠 (cùjú), an ancient ball game. The Japanese reading けまり is a native Japanese reading (kun'yomi) of the kanji.