Dumb Question

A ROK, is short for Rokkaku, which means 'Six sided kite'. Rokkakus are traditional used at a lot of festivals around the world to fight with. Individuals or teams fly these kites in battles with each other. The idea is to knock down or cut your opponents kite out of the sky, with the use of your kite and kite line. The last kite in the sky wins! Often 3 heats are ran. For instance, if there are 10 kites in a battle the winner would receive 10 points, 2nd place would receive 9pts, 3rd place- 8pts, etc... The competitors points for all three heats are added together, the winner is the team or individual that received the highest point total. Rokkaku kites can very in size from about 4ft to 16ft tall and can be constructed from riptop nylon/polyester, tyvek, etc.... ROKS can also be made with different types of frames (wood dowel rods, bamboo, fibre glass, graphite).

TROY GUNN

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€Endorsing: Top of the Line Kites, Tori Tako Kites, Revolution Kites, Libre Buggies, JoJo Power Foils, Laser Pro Lines, Avia Sport G-force spars, Fly By Night Kite Lights.

A Rok is a certain shape - 6 sided. Any size, I guess.

Oh, and yes, all roks are 'possible' fighters. Whether they are used as such is another matter.

Argh!

It might look kinda square with pointy ends to you, but fundamentaly a Rokkaku has *six* sides. I only know a few words of Japanese:

1 = Itchy 2 = Knee 3 = San 4 = She 5 = Go 6 = Roku !

I've heard it sad that in a true Rok, you can draw a circle which will pass through each spar tip.

One last note about rokkakus...

These days most kites are made out of fabric, or maybe fabric and a high tech film like Orcon.

Traditionally, rokkakus, even really large ones, are made out of paper. Of course the paper used is strong and lightweight, and it's a delightful material to work with.

Marty Sasaki