Jokenpo – Rock Paper Scissors

Rock paper scissors, jokenpo among other designations. Who has never found themselves resolving a dispute with this game? We see this in movies, series, animes, and cartoons, and the best part is that it is very normal.

It is such a well-known game that we don’t even ask where it came from? what does it mean?, if there are any similar ones? Questions like these that don’t even cross our minds, but we will provide the answers here.

That’s right, we will discuss a little about the history of Rock paper scissors. In addition to sharing some curiosities. But anyway, let’s get straight to the point.

Rock paper scissors – jokenpo

As we know, this game is usually played by two people. Thus, each player will simultaneously and individually decide which option they will choose to form with their hand.

In other words, the players will choose whether to form:

• Rock: represented by a closed fist
• Paper: represented by a fully open hand
• Scissors: represented by a fist with the index and middle fingers extended, forming a V;

This way, the result will always be zero since:

• Rock loses to paper and beats scissors
• Paper loses to scissors and beats rock
• Scissors lose to rock and beat paper

But it can result in a tie when the shapes are repeated, in which case the game is restarted.

History of Rock paper scissors

The first known mention of this game appeared in the book Wuzazu, by the Chinese writer of the Ming dynasty Xie Zhaozhi. It was written that the game dates back to the time of the Chinese Han dynasty, that is, from 206 BC to 220 AD. In the book, the game was called shoushiling.

Originally Chinese, this type of game spread throughout Asia. In this process, different signs appeared over time. But now let’s take a little look at the Japanese history of this game.

Throughout Japanese history, there are frequent references to sansukumi-ken, which are ken games, where ken means fist. The first Japanese sansukumi-ken game was known as mushi-ken (虫 拳), coming directly from China.

Currently, the most well-known sansukumi-ken is called jan-ken ( じ ゃ ん け ん ). Jan-ken uses the signs of rock, paper, and scissors, and our modern game derives directly from this game.

By the early 20th century, the game spread beyond Asia. Perhaps due to the increased contact between the West and the East. In other words, once again we have to thank globalization for the giant cultural exchange.

Strategies in the jokenpo game

Looking at it mathematically, it is impossible to have any type of strategy. But we have to remember that humans and any animal are not usually perfectly mathematical. What does this mean?

Basically, humans think and are influenced by other things. Thus, the game itself cannot be influenced, but the person playing can be. To exemplify, let’s mention an anime focused on games, No Game No Life.

In this game, we see a scene that totally represents this thinking. The protagonist makes a rock-paper-scissors bet. But before playing, he tells his opponent which shape he will choose. This puts the opponent in a great dilemma. Who in turn concludes not to believe.

But the point was that the protagonist told the truth. And as a consequence of the opponent’s mistake, the protagonist wins the bet.

Another strategy is delay. But this one is much harder to achieve as it requires great motor coordination as well as a strong sense of timing. And as we can deduce, the strategy consists of delaying your move as much as possible without being noticed.

This way, the opponent’s move can be discovered and the choice will be decided based on that.

Adding new shapes to Rock paper scissors

A game of combinations will always work as long as it follows these two rules without exceptions:

• the number of rounds is an odd number
• each move defeats exactly half of the other moves while being defeated by the other half

With more shapes, the chances of a tie are reduced and the complexity of the game increases. For example, there are versions of jokenpo with 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 25, and 101 shapes.

A popular variation with five shapes is “rock-paper-scissors-Spock-lizard.” In this game, “Spock” is represented with the Vulcan salute from Star Trek. Meanwhile, “lizard” is shown by forming the hand into a mouth-like shape as if holding a sock puppet. Spock crushes scissors and vaporizes rock; he is poisoned by lizard and disproved by paper.

Spock crushes scissors and vaporizes rock, in addition to being poisoned by lizard and disproved by paper.

The lizard poisons Spock and eats paper, in addition to being crushed by rock and decapitated by scissors.

Have you played Rock paper scissors today?

That’s all we have. Games will always be something that attracts our curiosity. I remember the first time I saw this game in Dragon Ball. It might be one of the animes with the most rock-paper-scissors disputes in history.

But the most epic game was definitely in No Game No Life, which I have already mentioned here. Anyway, do you know of any other occasions in animes where it was resolved with Rock paper scissors? I can remember several. But anyway, leave your comment down below.

Also, remember to share the site on social media if you liked it, it will help us a lot. Other than that, thank you for reading this far, goodbye.