Even so, they were extra energetic than their contemporaries in Heian Japan during the eighth to 12th centuries. Encumbered by many-layered robes and sequestered in their homes, the Japanese ladies have been unable to do more than peep from behind their screens at the courtiers’ mounted archery contests. Played with fastidiously sewn stuffed skins, with animal bladders, or with found objects so easy as gourds, chunks of wood, or rounded stones, ball games are common. Descriptions of the sport cuju, which resembled trendy football , appeared as early because the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220).
With the problem of participant vaccination …