Tuho / Pitch pot
Korea Post released a “Traditional Korean Games” stamp series on September 15th, 2022 featuring two stamps1:
Archery (활쏘기 ‘hwal-sso-gi’) (430 KRW ~ USD 0.32)
Tuho (투호 ‘tu-ho’) (430 KRW ~ USD 0.32) ← our topic of the day
Designed by Ryu Jihyeong, both stamps feature an illustration of a boy and a girl wearing hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) and enjoying the target games of archery and tuho.
Tuho is a game involving teams throwing arrows into a pot placed at a certain distance. A direct translation of its Hanja characters (投壺) is Pitch-pot, which is also the name of its English Wikipedia article. You can see an illustration of the tuho pot (투호통) from the old South Korean 1,000 won note:
The arrows are typically colored differently - red and blue - for the different teams. Generally, whoever or whichever team with the most arrows in the pot or in the surrounding ear-holes wins.
From Ancient China
Records of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of Wei show that the game was already being played during the Three Kingdoms period. The Book of Rites, an ancient book of rituals, even has a chapter for this game. Specifically, it details elaborate rules of etiquette such as
Before the game, the host kindly invites the guest to play, and the guest must decline twice. Only after the host has invited the guest a third time can the guest participate.2
You can probably guess that this was an upperclass game because of the elaaaaaborate rules.
In Korea
The game came to Korea from China and was especially popular in Goguryeo and Baekje. Goguryeo and Baekje were Korean kingdoms. Together with Silla, the three made up the Three Kingdoms of Korea and contributed to what would become Korea, before the north-south split at least.
According to a historical record in 1116 CE, King Yejong of Goryeo commissioned a rulebook of tuho3. Rules meant etiquette. Not surprisingly, the game became inaccessible for the common folk as a result, as it was too difficult to get the utensils or to follow the rules set by the nobles.
During the Joseon Period, it was traditionally played by royal families or the upperclassmen of society, known as the yangban (양반). The game was played by both men as well as women since the wives and daughters of the yangban were not allowed out much4.
Today, people in Korea play this traditional game during public holiday festivals and events.
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“민속놀이.” Korea Post. Accessed 23 Apr. 2023.
“Pitch-pot.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch-pot. Accessed 23 Apr. 2023.
“Tuho.” Encyclopedia of korean folk culture, folkency.nfm.go.kr/topic/detail/1631. Accessed 23 Apr. 2023.
“민속놀이.” Korea Post. Accessed 23 Apr. 2023.