Why not try making your own hagoita (traditional Japanese battledore) for the New Year? In this article, we’ll introduce easy, handmade hagoita ideas that you can try using everyday materials.
By using recycled items like milk cartons, cardboard, or wooden boards from kamaboko fish cakes, you can create a one-of-a-kind original hagoita without spending much on materials.
Try drawing pictures or adding decorations to make pieces that are not only fun to play with but also enjoyable to display.
Enjoy the process of making them while experiencing Japan’s New Year traditions.
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Let's Make a Handmade Hagoita! Fun Ideas Using Milk Cartons and Cardboard (1–10)
A decorative hagoita made with color boards and origami
This is a festive hagoita (battledore) that you can make using origami and mizuhiki cord available at 100-yen shops.
For New Year’s decorations, we recommend giving the hagoita a three-dimensional, layered look.
You can create lively, sumptuous decorations perfect for the New Year atmosphere.
Fold flowers out of origami, make fans with Japanese-patterned paper, and attach them as accent motifs on the hagoita.
As you arrange and attach the parts you’ve made, keep the overall balance in mind.
To achieve a three-dimensional effect, be sure to apply glue only where each part touches the surface of the hagoita.
Mini Hagoita Made with Felt and Cardboard
Let’s use thick paperboard to make a cute felt mini hagoita (traditional Japanese battledore).
Decorative hagoita often feature raised, three-dimensional embellishments like flowers and fans.
By using felt, which is a thicker fabric, you can create dimensional decorations.
Try making plum blossoms and shuttlecocks out of felt and attaching them to the hagoita.
For an even lovelier finish, decorate with craft pearls and rhinestone embellishments.
You can easily create a gorgeous hagoita perfect for New Year’s decorations.
Easy! Paper Plate Battledore
Paper plates are practical and also handy as craft materials.
Glue chopsticks onto a paper plate, fold and secure them so it takes the shape of a battledore.
Tear patterned washi paper by hand and stick it onto the surface of the battledore.
Then decorate the battledore—now covered with washi—with origami pieces you fold, such as daruma dolls or zodiac animals.
If you have children at home, everyone can enjoy making the origami parts together.
Once you’ve prepared the shuttlecocks made by crumpling tissue paper, you can play with the battledore.
It’s perfect for New Year’s games.
Cute flower hagoita made with tsumami-zaiku
Tsumami-zaiku is a craft where you fold small square pieces of fabric with tweezers to create flowers and other shapes.
With its distinctly Japanese feel, tsumami-zaiku is perfect for traditional New Year decorations.
Displaying a hagoita adorned with tiny, delicate-looking tsumami-zaiku flowers can instantly transform your room into a charming space.
You can even make use of tsumami-zaiku kits—available at 100-yen shops—that include several types of chirimen crepe fabric.
If you attach tsumami-zaiku flowers together with mizuhiki cords to a hagoita, you can create a piece that feels even more fitting for the New Year.
Mini hagoita with chirimen-style fabric
It would be cute to line up small battledores with different designs, wouldn’t it? Cut an empty milk carton or thick cardstock into the shape of a battledore, then attach black chirimen crepe fabric sized to the battledore.
If you use chirimen with an adhesive backing, it’s easy to stick on.
Add a variety of chirimen fabrics in different patterns and colors—either pieces you’ve cut or shapes punched out with a flower punch—to the battledores you’ve made.
If you also attach motifs made from chirimen, like Mount Fuji or folding fans, they’ll suit the New Year perfectly.
It’s also nice to mount the finished battledores on a backing board for display.
A festive battledore decorated with cranes and the auspicious trio of pine, bamboo, and plum
This is a New Year’s hagoita paddle, perfect for the season, featuring a crane flying above auspicious pine, bamboo, and plum motifs.
You’ll assemble it by attaching decorative parts to the paddle; using craft kits for hagoita available at 100-yen shops makes it convenient.
Apply fabric to the paddle and attach the crane.
It’s also nice to use a crane ornament you’ve made yourself.
Please also add pine, bamboo, and plum made with mizuhiki cords or tsumami-zaiku (pinched-fabric) techniques to the paddle.
You might even replace the crane with a part representing that year’s zodiac animal.
By crafting something intricate with easily found materials sold at 100-yen shops and the like, you can create a wonderful piece.
Hagoita decorated in red and pink using spray techniques
Let’s make a gorgeous, elegant, and beautiful gold hagoita (decorative paddle) using spray paint.
First, color the base paddle with gold spray.
Arrange and attach artificial flowers and butterfly ornaments to the paddle in a well-balanced way.
For adhesion, try using a hot glue gun, which dries quickly and holds firmly.
If you apply washi-style masking tape along the edge of the paddle, it will become a piece perfect for the New Year.
When attaching the artificial flowers, build up the centers so they form a gentle mound, creating a hagoita with a three-dimensional look.