What is Hanaichimonme?
Hanaichimonme is a game in which children split into two teams, join hands in lines, and move forward and back while singing, each team choosing a child they want from the other side. The team that wins at rock-paper-scissors takes the chosen child, and the game continues until one team has no members left. The words and rules vary from region to region.
The dark meaning of Hanaichimonme
The monme in “hana ichi monme” (flowers, one monme) was a unit of weight for silver coins in the Edo period and was also used as a unit of money. From this, a theory arose that “hana ichi monme” means buying flowers for one monme, and by extension that the song depicts child traders buying and selling children at a low price.
The exchange in which the winning team sings happily and the losing team sings regretfully is also said to represent child traders delighted to buy children cheaply and parents saddened at being beaten down on price. In poor times, children really were sent into service or sold to reduce the mouths to feed.
What does it really mean?
However, these theories have no clear basis, and another view holds that it was originally peaceful wordplay about buying or picking flowers. The fact that the game itself, in which children “fight over” each other, has a slightly cruel side of choosing and not being chosen may be another reason dark meanings are told. Kagome Kagome and Toryanse are also well known for dark meanings.
