Gonggi

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Gonggi
Plastic gonggi stones.
Korean name
Hangul 공기 or 공기놀이 Revised Romanization gonggi or gongginori McCune- Reischauer konggi or kongginori

Gonggi (공기, pronounced gong-gee) is a popular Korean children's game that was traditionally played using 5–7 or more small grape-sized pebbles. Nowadays, children buy colourful plastic tokens instead of finding pebbles. It can be played alone or with friends. The pebbles or tokens are called gonggitdol (공깃돌), which means "gonggi stones." Since only a few stones and a flat surface are needed for play, the game can be played by all children, regardless of their economic condition.

In simple terms, each player tosses the tokens onto the ground and throws one into the air. They have to scoop up the others and then proceed to catch the airborne one. There are five levels and players score points by tossing all five of them and then catching them on the back of your hand. Play proceeds until the airborne token is dropped or other tokens are touched or moved unintentionally, then it is the other player's turn.

[edit] References

• (Korean) Gongginori at the Metropolitan History of Seoul (Korean)
• rules of gonggi

[edit] See also

• Korean culture
• List of Korea-related topics
• Yut
• Jacks