When it is complete, you should all be sitting in an unbroken circle, with each participant grasping the left thumb of the person to their right.
Present your left hand to the participant on your left and, in the same manner, allow them to grasp the thumb of your own left hand with their right hand. Reach out to the participant on your right and grasp the thumb of their left hand in your own right hand.Make yourselves comfortable you might be here for a while. Sit together in a circle on the floor.Draw the curtains and dim or turn out the lights.Gather all participants together in the dark, quiet room in which you have chosen to play.A dark, quiet room where you are unlikely to be disturbed.That means, of course, that the same warning applies: In any event, the Thumb Game has a few things in common with the Little Finger Game and the White Kimono Game. So: Even if I haven’t been able to find a record of the game on the internet dating back further than the publication of the book, Yamada’s statement that he played it as a child means it dates back at least as far as the 1980s-1990s. He cites Oyayubi sagashi as an example of this principal in action, both describing the game and then noting, “この話は、子どもの時に実際にやった遊びがベースになっています。”-or, in English (roughly, via Google Translate), “This story is based on what I actually played as a child.” Consider an interview with Yamada published at Gentosha Books’ website a little while ago, for example: In it, Yamada states that he often gets inspiration for his stories from what’s actually going on the world - trends, events, and so on - as well as from his own lived experiences. It’s also worth noting that, even if the lack of a paper trail for the game online prior to 2003 suggests that it might be an invention, there are some drips and drabs of info around that internet that imply the opposite - that suggest the game might a longstanding tradition that goes back further than its documentation does.
#Ten thumbs game movie#
And even if it’s not widely talked about on the internet outside of the context of the book and movie, that doesn’t mean the game is necessarily an invention of these pieces of media people could well have been speaking of it offline long before the book or movie arrived. That doesn’t mean it’s not there, of course it just means that if it’s there, it’s somewhere I’m unable to find or access it, given the limitations I’m working within (location, language barrier, etc.). before the publication of the novel) didn’t bring up anything relevant. release.)īut although I’m reasonably certain that the game Oyayubi sagashi’s popularity now is largely due to Yamada’s novel, what I’m not totally sure about is whether the game existed before Yamada’s novel - that is, whether the novel has at its center an extant urban legend or piece of folklore, or whether the legend of the game was an invention of Yamada himself specificallyfor use in his novel.įor what it’s worth, a Google search for 親指さがし -“山田悠介” -“映画” - that is, a search for the game/novel’s title, minus both Yamada’s name and the word “movie” - with parameters set to limit results only to those posted to the internet prior to Dec. (I don’t believe it was ever given a U.S. In 2006, the novel was adapted into a film its Japanese title was, again, 親指さがし, although in English, it’s known as Vanished. Seven years later, the remaining friends gather together on the anniversary of Yumi’s disappearance to play the game once more and, hopefully, to find out what happened to Yumi. Written by YA horror novelist Yusuke Yamada (山田悠介) and published in 2003, it centers around a group of friends who, as children, dared to play Oyayubi sagashi - after which one of their number, Yumi, disappeared. The novel, like the game, is titled 親指さがし. (This is despite the fact that the game’s original title translates more literally as something like, “Looking for the thumb.”) However, there’s very little usually given about the game’s background in English language sources - which is why I was a little surprised at what I found when I started searching Japanese ones: In Japan, the game is mostly notably for its connection with a horror novel and a subsequent live-action movie adaptation of that novel.
The Japanese ritual game called Oyayubi sagashi (親指さがし) is all over the English-speaking internet these days it’s just largely known by a different name: The Thumb Game. Note: Please don’t copy/paste or republish the text of this post on other websites without permission.
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