JKA Kendamas

All Yumu paint styles are JKA Approved.

 

For what its worth, I've seen shin fujis go through a full cycle of player appreciation. When I first started playing (2009-2012 ish), shin fuji was considered to be the cheapo brand. They were in fact the cheapest option (you could find them in Japan for ~$13 USD, or online for maybe $18USD), the paint quality was low compared to other options (TK-16's durability, ozora's playability), and it seemed that the overall quality control wasn't quite as high as the other JKA brands. Fast forward a few years (2013-2015 ish) and the shin fuji saw a comeback, largely due to players finding they were 'epic for stilt/bird tricks'. At this point I would say they've faded from popularity again, more so due to the evolution of the preferred shape/style of ken, than a drop in quality or something like that.

 

Adding to this, Yumu has been on the JKA steeze for almost 2 years now.
I almost forgot about it, but i saw these in the large, during KWC 2016.

(Yumu Pro Racing)



(Yumu Super Paint)



During this time, Yumu had already applied for JKA certification, hence the reason these kendamas are using the Recommended Seal, and it took them a fair amount of time after that (which is now), to receive the complete certification from JKA.

 

I've never tried Pro Racing before (i think), but i've had the opportunity to try out the others.

Their Sticky Paint is a pretty durable gloss; a slightly thinner coat than Ozora's Premium series, and tack-wise is very similar to that as well. The Yumu Saturn i have uses that paint.

Super Paint is a pretty unique rubber matte paint, that i've had the chance to try. It's uh.. slightly more coarse in texture compared to regular rubber paints (regular ones feel more silky; Yumu's feel almost like sandpaper), but because of that, the grip provided is pretty insane for a rubber coating. It's actually one of my favorite rubber coats out there, next to Gloken's Steam Paint.

 

whats the story with the new "recommended" seals and why do they look so different? why are some green and some red, and why no gold JKA logo?

 

My take on it is :
It looks more like a “i’m a newbie” badge, so that non-Japanese speakers (and by extension, most players) can clearly differentiate the Recommended Seal and the golden graduation badge of honor (the full certification seal).

From what i can see so far, a company is assigned a certain color from the start of their partnership with the JKA.
Gentosha’s Rec seal was red, and it extended to a red certified seal after.
Yumu - same thing. Turquoise/teal thing going on, then graduate with the seal we all know and love.

 

@Edric Owen Ladera @Emil Apostol The kendama from Yumu that we have at the shop for demo are prototypes. I don't know if they were the "final" versions. They were given to me by the JKA to test out and I figured the demo table at the shop was as good a place as any to see how they did.

 

My understanding is that they either had problems with counterfeiting the older JKA seals or were trying to preempt counterfeiting by going to the new holographic seals. I'm not entirely clear on whether the new seals are produced by the same company but they've been having a little trouble getting the colors where they want them. Gentosha for example should be red (as was their old Hajimete no Kendama seals) but they appear to be a bit closer to pink on the holographic ones.

To my knowledge there are currently 5 companies producing official JKA kendama (either approved and/or recommended): Yamagata Koubou - Ozora (yellow/gold); Kashimaya - Meijin Takumi (darker blue); Gentosha - Stars (red/pink); Yumu (teal/green)[not sure of all the brand/line names that will be sporting the JKA seals for them]; Ikeda Kōgyōsha - Kodama (white)

The current recommended seals were intended to cut down on confusion by having something that looked completely different than the "approved" seals so they made them off a new design rather than based on the "certified" (nintei) seals. Also they don't really indicate "I'm a newbie" since they are often official shaped kendama that do not meet all of the criteria for becoming approved (nintei) for example they're too expensive or they are in their testing phase before being accepted as "approved."

Also the stylized JKA logo is still in the middle of the recommended seals but there's no metallic to them now unlike before.




(edited to address the original question better.)

 

lol, if Yumu ends up with the same colour/seal that mugens had, that would just be like an insult to Iwatta Mokko. Experienced collectors would be able to tell the difference no doubt, but it would diminish the rep for new players a little

 

Not forgetting Ikeda Industrial’s Kodama, with the White seal.

Hahaha i went with “i’m a newbie” because it explains it better for most people. Being a newbie, and being put on probation for the first 3 months (or a year, in Yumu’s case) gave them time to “learn the ropes”, so to say, and adjust themselves with their new “boss”.
After that, if the probie meets the bosses requirements, the badge of honor is given.

 

I'll update the post above thanks. I have yet to see one of these in the wild.

 

It's unlikely they'll intentionally use the same colors but with the new holographic seals there seems to be some color adjustments going on. Everyone was saying the Kashimaya seals looked the same but when you see them next to each other you see there's a difference. It does seem that they could run into more color variation troubles going forward since it appears they retire colors as they drop/change old models and makers. You may end up needing a Pantone chart to tell who is who.