In the beginning, there was just getting it on the cups and spiking it, I imagine. Until one day, some days or years later, someone accidentally landed a birdstall going for a spike or just trying it...or an earth turn just kind of happened. Does anyone know enough about kendama history to say approximately when 'major' modern tricks like: Airplanes Lighthouses Lunars Whirlwinds were first landed and emulated by other players? For instance, as a skateboarder, I can recall ollie kickflips and handrails started showing up in magazines and were performed by pro skaters in the mid-to-late1980s. Before that it was completely unheard of and basically unimaginable to most skaters. I have burning questions like: Did 'lunar landers' first become a phenomena in the Japanese kendama community before or after man landed on the moon in 1969? Does anyone know?
Were ‘spacewalks’ invented shortly after the first actual space walk.? Did downspikes ever occur in the 19th century?
Watching! But a couple of the tricks you mentioned (Lighthouse and Airplane) were already being talked about as early as the 1970s when the Japan Kendama Association first started. Check out the history of the Japan Kendama Association here. The JKA played a big part in modernizing kendama play, which included codifying and naming all the tricks that could be done with the toy.
I shot a message to a guy I know from the JKA. I was told that he wasn't certain of the exact years they were invented but Lunar, Airplane, and Lighthouse were already in use by around 1920.
I did some poking around and the first reference I can find to "whirlwind" is on this page from 2002. The trick is called "furiken tsumiji kaze" (ふりけんつむじ風) Swing-in Whirlwind. It's not the same variant as what is known as Whirlwind in the West but if they're already using the name and the trick shares similarities then it's possible that it was out there digitally undocumented. The first video I can find of that trick is this one from 2009.
Lunars for the past 100 years? Awesome! If anyone knows who, how or when any other kendama tricks were invented, please post it!
Ive played kendama since 1988 and saw an old kendama book that showed airplanes and I want to say I saw footage in Japan around the same time of lighthouses being done.