Where does “けんだま” come from?

けんだま (Japanese) comes from Japanese 玉, from Middle Chinese 玉.

Ancestry of “けんだま”, step by step

けんだま traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 玉

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese玉"any spherical or similarly-rounded object"; a...
2Middle Chinese玉—

via Japanese 拳

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese拳a fist; any of the martial arts that use the...
2Middle Chinese拳—
Every word from Middle Chinese 玉 →Every word from Japanese 玉 →