Chikaraishi

Commonly found within Shinto shrines, they were used for competition, divination, physical fitness and entertainment; some famous examples have also become tourist attractions, and many have been recognised as Important Cultural Assets by the Japanese Government.

[5] The first recorded incidence of strength-stone lifting is attributed to the samurai Kamakura Gongorō Kagemasa in 1089, however the practice itself is much older, dating to before the 8th century.

[6] The Nippo Jisho, also called the Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam, a Japanese – Portuguese dictionary published in 1603, includes the term chikaraishi in the written record as early as the 17th century.

The Nippo Jisho, published in Nagasaki and associated with the Jesuit priest João Rodrigues (1561 or 1562 – 1633), identically records both the modern pronunciation and written form of the term chikaraishi.

[2] Both professions valued the manual labor of young people, and similar practices called kyokumochi also existed, which involved lifting sacks of rice or barrels of sake.

[10] The practice of lifting strength-stones was especially popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries (roughly coinciding with the Meiji period), with organised competitions occurring.

[11] Stones used in competition were usually inscribed with their weight, measured in kan (貫) (a unit of approximately 3.75 kg (8 lb)), and if not naturally smooth, were often sculpted into a roughly oval shape.

Ishizashi (石差, "various stones") was the simplest form, requiring competitors to hoist a rock of about 70 kg (154 lb), known as a sashi-ishi (サシ石), from the ground to above the head.