Shiritori

Shiritori

Shiritori (しりとり) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana, katakana or kanji. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the end" or "taking the rear".

Rules

• Two or more people take turns to play.
• Only nouns are permitted.
• A player who plays a word ending in the mora N (ん) loses the game, as no Japanese word begins with that character.
• Words may not be repeated.
• Phrases connected by no (の) are permitted, but only in those cases where the phrase is sufficiently fossilized to be considered a "word".

Example: sakura (さくら) → rajio (ラジオ) → onigiri (おにぎり) → risu (りす) → sumou (すもう) → udon (うどん)

The player who used the word udon lost this game.

There are various optional and advanced rules, which must be agreed on before the game begins.

Optional rules

• Dakuten and handakuten may be ignored or added. Thus suupu (スープ) may be followed by furo (ふろ), and sato (さと) may be followed by dochi (どち).
• A long vowel may either be ignored or considered as a vowel. Mikisaa (ミキサー/みきさあ) can be followed by either sakura (さくら) or aki (あき).
• Common pronouns and place names may be permitted. Example: Edo jou (えどじょう) lit. Edo castle is acceptable.
• Two words spelled with the same kana but different kanji may be permitted. For example, Su (す) can either be spelled as "巣" (lit. a birdnest) or "酢" (lit. vinegar).

Advanced rules

• Words are limited to a certain genre.
• Instead of using only the last kana, the final two kana must be used again. In this case, only the first kana may not be the mora N (ん).
• The length of a word must be three or more syllables.

English shiritori

A Shiritori game using only English words was invented to help people learn English. Most rules are the same, yet there are several original and optional rules that are used.

• For students of English, any words including nouns, verbs, and adjectives can be used.
• Players cannot use different tenses of previously used verbs unless they have nonstandard conjugation. For example, a player may use "be," "was," and "is," but not both "kick" and "kicked."
• When a word ends in a silent vowel, like "life," one may either use the vowel in another word or use the preceding consonant instead.

Similar games

In English, the most similar game is Word chain.

There are Russian wordgames similar to shiritori known as "Igra v slova" ("Игра в слова"—A game of words), where players are required to say a noun that begins with the final letter of the previous word, and "Igra v goroda" ("Игра в города"—A game of cities), where players are required to say a name of a city or town that begins with the final letter of the previous word.

There is also a similar South Slavic game called Kalodont, in which players continue the chain by beginning with last two letters of the previous word.

In Korean, there is a game called ggeut-mar-it-gi (끝말잇기—End Word Continue), in which players must say a word that starts with the last Hangul letter of the previous word.

In Romanian, there is a game called "Fazan" ("Pheasant"), in which players must say a word that starts with the last two letters of the previous word.

Examples from popular culture

• In the Japanese version of Tomodachi Life, there is an event called Shiritori Tournament but obviously changed into Word Chain in the European version, and ggeut-mar-it-gi in the Korean version, the North American version lacks the game but there is a similar event called Rap Battle.

• In episode 6 of the anime Nichijou, the characters Yūko Aioi and Mio Naganohara play a picture version of the game.

• In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Junichi Masuda wrote the ending song which is titled "Pokémon Shiritori" (ポケモンしりとり, Pokémon Shiritori), it's a brand new version of the Japanese word game, and is performed by Pokémon Music Club's Junichi Masuda, Pasocom Music Club, and Pokémon Kids 2019, which is divided into 2 parts, the Pikachu → Mew Ver. (ピカチュウ→ミュウ Ver., Pikachū → Myū Ver.), and the Mew → Zamazenta Ver. (ミュウ→ザマゼンタ Ver., Myū → Zamazenta Ver.). In Pokémon Shirtori, the title of the song is shown. The waveform of the song appears in the background with many Poké Balls. Pokémon appear in a line, moving right-to-left as they are named, while a Poké Ball corresponding to the initial kana of the Pokémon's name in gojūon order flashes in the color of the Pokémon in the background. But if there's an "n" ｢ン｣ at the end, the shiritori chain ends in failure and during the jingle, the Pokémon Center healing sound effect plays with a circular waveform consisting of pink dots during the first variant, and during the jingle, blue line goes across the screen, which is cleared as the level up sound effect plays by a series of red, green, and blue arrows with the starter Pokémon of the corresponding type during the second variant. 10 groups of Pokémon appear on wheels surrounding Poké Balls, Great Balls, Ultra Balls, and Master Balls. The middle segment includes a special (muted) shiritori: Scorbunny - Mew. The four groups of pokemon are seen dancing two times, with the second 'round' being a modified version. The background Poké Balls flip to briefly show silhouettes of various Pokémon and other Poké Balls change in size to the beat. Another line of Pokémon is shown and ends successfully. The following scene differs between variants. After that, the title of the song is shown again at the end.