Jokari is a racket game principally for two players that can also be played alone. The game consists of a rubber ball attached to an anchor on the floor by means of a long elastic band, which makes the ball come back when a person hits it. Jokari is played with wooden paddles and is similar to swingball. The game has been highlighted as a way of engaging children in physical activity.[1]

A jokari set

Jokari was invented in France in 1938 by Louis Joseph Miremont, then residing in Bayonne.[citation needed]

Cultural references

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The game has reached cult status in France and is featured in several comics,[2] and also in the 2006 James Bond spoof movie OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, in the English translation of which, the game is called "paddleball".[citation needed] In the first chapter of Ian Fleming's 1963 novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond also refers to jokari as he is watching a beach on the northern coast of France.[citation needed]

In 2015, a group of Belgian medical doctors reported a case of a woman who presented with a wandering spleen, naming this anatomical phenomenon "the Jokari sign".[3]

References

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  1. ^ Light, Ken (1979). "Activity for Activity's Sake". Journal of Physical Education and Recreation. 50 (3): 38. doi:10.1080/00971170.1979.10617978. ISSN 0097-1170.
  2. ^ "Gaston Lagaffe : Lagaffe m'agace". lagaffemegate.free.fr (in French). Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  3. ^ Vander Maren, N.; Verbeeck, N. (15 September 2015). "The "Jokari Sign", An Imaging Feature Diagnostic of a Wandering Accessory Spleen". Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology. 99 (1): 58–61. doi:10.5334/jbr-btr.857. ISSN 1780-2393. PMC 6095188. PMID 30128424.
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