Card / throwing game

Throwing and flicking games belong to the street and the schoolyard. Menko is the classic: players throw their own card or disk at an opponent's, aiming to flip it and capture it. The physics are about angle and airflow as much as force, so children of different ages can play together. Menko evolved from Edo-period clay disks to lead (briefly, until a poisoning incident), then to cardboard and paper printed with samurai, ninja, military imagery, and after the war with anime, manga, and baseball stars. Holographic and collectible menko peaked in the 1980s and 1990s; today the game survives in nostalgic and media tie-in form. What unites these games is skill over brute strength—the right throw, the right flick—and a culture of collection and swap that turns play into a social ritual. Menko variants include stack menko (cards stacked for higher stakes) and hole menko (Ana-ichi). Nakamura Toy in Tokyo remains a specialist manufacturer. The game is a Showa-era childhood symbol; collector markets for pre-war and postwar menko remain active. Each entry in this category includes rules, history, strategy tips, and where to find or buy sets.