Read this and thought it was really interesting and figured it was worth sharing.. Temari Balls or Gotenmari | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities Inside the balls, women would put a small piece of paper with a written wish for the child. Since the kid could never find out what the wish was without him destroying the toy, the wish had a greater chance of coming true.
Thanks for posting, those are really beautiful. I wonder how they work it out so geometrically perfect.