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are a style of
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
. They are typically smaller than Western
playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
, only , but thicker and stiffer. On the face of each card is a depiction of plants, ''tanzaku'' (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects. One single card depicts a human. The back side is usually plain, without a pattern or design of any kind, and traditionally coloured either red or black. Hanafuda are used to play a variety of games including ''
Koi-Koi is a popular card game in Japan played with hanafuda. The phrase "koi-koi" roughly means "come on" in Japanese which is said when the player wants to continue the round. The object of the game is to form special card combinations (or sets) calle ...
'' and ''Hachi-Hachi''. In Korea, hanafuda are known as ''Hwatu'' (
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
: 화투,
Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...
: , "battle of flowers") and made of plastic with a textured back side. The most popular games are ''
Go-stop Go-Stop (), also called Godori (, after the winning move in the game) is a Korean fishing card game played with a Hwatu () deck. The game can be called Matgo () when only two players are playing. The game is derived from similar Japanese fishi ...
'' (Korean: 고스톱) and ''Seotda'' (Korean: 섯다). Hwatu is very commonly played in South Korea during special holidays such as
Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named " Chinese New Year" becau ...
and ''
Chuseok ''Chuseok'' (; , literally "autumn evening"), also known as ''Hangawi'' (Hangul: ; ; from archaic Korean for "the great middle (of autumn)"), is a major mid-autumn harvest festival and a three-day holiday in South Korea celebrated on the 15th ...
'' (추석). In Hawaii, hanafuda is used to play
Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...
. Hanafuda is also played in
Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...
, where it is known as ''Hanahuda'' and is used to play a four-person game, which is often paired cross-table.


History

Playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century. The Portuguese deck consisted of 48 cards, with four suits divided into 12 ranks. The first Japanese-made decks made during the Tenshō period (1573–1592) mimicked Portuguese decks and are referred to as ''Tenshō Karuta''. The main game was a
trick-taking game A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a ''hand'' centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called ''tricks'', which are each evaluated to determine a winner or ''taker'' of that trick. The object of such g ...
intermediate in evolution between Triunfo and
Ombre Ombre (, pronounced "omber") or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and "the most successful card game ever invented." Its history began in Spain around the end of the 16th century as a four-pe ...
. After Japan closed off all contact with the Western world in 1633, foreign playing cards were banned. In 1648, ''Tenshō Karuta'' were banned by the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
. During prohibition, gambling with cards remained highly popular which led to disguised card designs. Each time gambling with a card deck of a particular design became too popular, the government banned it, which then prompted the creation of a new design. This cat-and-mouse game between the government and rebellious gamblers resulted in the creation of increasingly abstract and minimalist regional patterns (地方札). These designs were initially called ''Yomi Karuta'' after the popular
Poch Poch, Pochen or Pochspiel (french: Poque) is a very old card game that is considered one of the forerunners of poker, a game that developed in America in the 19th century. An etymological relationship between the game names is also assumed. Ga ...
-like game of ''Yomi'' which was known by the 1680s.Kuromiya Kimihiko. (2005). "Kakkuri: The Last Yomi Game of Japan". ''
The Playing-Card ''The Playing-Card'' is a quarterly publication, publishing scholarly articles covering all aspects of playing cards and of the games played with them, produced by the International Playing-Card Society. ''The Playing-Cards articles are mostly in E ...
'', Vol 33-4. p. 232-235.
Through the
Meiwa was a after ''Hōreki'' and before ''An'ei.'' This period spanned the years from June 1764 through November 1772. The reigning empress and emperor were and . Change of era * 1764 : The era name became ''Meiwa'' (meaning "Bright Harmony") bec ...
,
An'ei was a after ''Meiwa'' and before ''Tenmei.'' This period spanned the years November 1772 through March 1781. The reigning emperors were and . Change of era * 1772 : The era name was changed to ''An'ei'' (meaning "peaceful eternity") to mark t ...
, and
Tenmei is a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', literally "years name") for the years between the An'ei Era and before the Kansei Era, from April 1781 through January 1789. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1781 : The new era name of Tenme ...
eras (roughly 1764–1789), a game called ''Mekuri'' took the place of ''Yomi''. It became so popular that ''Yomi Karuta'' was renamed ''Mekuri Karuta''. Mechanically, ''Mekuri'' is similar to Chinese fishing games. Cards became so commonly used for gambling that they were banned in 1791, during the
Kansei was a after ''Tenmei'' and before ''Kyōwa''. This period spanned the years from January 1789 through February 1801. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1789 : The new era name of '' Kansei'' (meaning "Tolerant Government" or "Broad-min ...
era. The earliest known reference to ''Hana Awase'' (a previous version of hanafuda) is from 1816 when it was recorded as a banned gambling tool. Unlike earlier decks it consists of 12 months (suits) divided into four rank-like categories. The majority of hanafuda games are descended from ''Mekuri'' although ''Yomi'' adaptations for the flower cards survived until the 20th century. Though they can still be used for gambling, its structure and design is less convenient than other decks such as
Kabufuda ''Kabufuda'' () are Japanese playing cards used for gambling games such as ''Oicho-Kabu''. ''Kabufuda'' cards, like the related ''hanafuda'' ("flower cards"), are smaller and stiffer than Western playing cards. A deck contains 40 cards, with des ...
. In the
Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
, playing cards became tolerated by the authorities. In 1889,
Fusajiro Yamauchi , born , was a Japanese entrepreneur who founded the company that is now known as Nintendo. Yamauchi lived in Kyoto, Japan and had a wife and a daughter, Tei Yamauchi, who later married Sekiryo Kaneda. Before Nintendo Fusajiro Fukui was bo ...
founded
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for the purposes of producing and selling hand-crafted hanafuda. Nintendo has focused on
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
s since the 1970s but continues to produce cards in Japan, including themed sets based on
Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...
,
Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...
, and
Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...
. The ''
Koi-Koi is a popular card game in Japan played with hanafuda. The phrase "koi-koi" roughly means "come on" in Japanese which is said when the player wants to continue the round. The object of the game is to form special card combinations (or sets) calle ...
'' game played with hanafuda is included in Nintendo's own ''
Clubhouse Games ''Clubhouse Games'', known in some European countries as ''42 All-Time Classics'' and in Japanese as is a compilation video game developed by Agenda and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS, consisting of board, card, and tabletop games fr ...
'' (2006) for the
Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
, and '' Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics'' (2020) for the
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
. Hanafuda were likely introduced to Korea during the late 1890s and to Hawaii in the early 1900s.


Cards

There are 48 cards total, divided into twelve suits, representing months of the year. Each suit is designated by a flower and has four cards. An extra blank card may be included to serve as a replacement. In Korean ''Hwatu'' decks, several joker cards (조커패) award various bonuses. The standard categorizations and point values for each card are as follows. Note that some games change the point values or categorizations of the cards. For example, in the game Hachi-Hachi, all of the November cards count as ''kasu'', and in the game
Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...
, the values of the cards are different.
※ In the Korean ''Hwatu'' version, the November and December suits are swapped.


Text significance

A few cards in hanafuda contain
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
text. In addition to the examples below, the December ''kasu'' cards typically display the manufacturer's name and marks, similar to the
Ace of spades The Ace of Spades (also known as the Spadille and Death Card) is traditionally the highest and most valued card in the deck of playing cards in English-speaking countries. The actual value of the card varies from game to game. Design The orn ...
in western
playing cards A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
.


Games

Mekuri-derived games: *Hana Awase **Minhwatu **
Koi-Koi is a popular card game in Japan played with hanafuda. The phrase "koi-koi" roughly means "come on" in Japanese which is said when the player wants to continue the round. The object of the game is to form special card combinations (or sets) calle ...
***
Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...
***
Go-Stop Go-Stop (), also called Godori (, after the winning move in the game) is a Korean fishing card game played with a Hwatu () deck. The game can be called Matgo () when only two players are playing. The game is derived from similar Japanese fishi ...
**Roppyakken **Mushi *Hachi *Hachi-hachi **Sudaoshi *Tensho Yomi-derived games: *Poka *Hiyoko *Isuri Gabo Japgi/
Kabufuda ''Kabufuda'' () are Japanese playing cards used for gambling games such as ''Oicho-Kabu''. ''Kabufuda'' cards, like the related ''hanafuda'' ("flower cards"), are smaller and stiffer than Western playing cards. A deck contains 40 cards, with des ...
-derived games: *Seotda *Doryjytgo-ttang


See also

* :Films about hanafuda * :Hanafuda manufacturers *
Kabufuda ''Kabufuda'' () are Japanese playing cards used for gambling games such as ''Oicho-Kabu''. ''Kabufuda'' cards, like the related ''hanafuda'' ("flower cards"), are smaller and stiffer than Western playing cards. A deck contains 40 cards, with des ...
*
Karuta are Japanese playing cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used for trick-taking games. The earliest indigenous ''karuta'' was invented in the town of Miike in C ...
*
Uta-garuta is a type of a deck of ''karuta'', Japanese traditional playing cards. A set of ''uta-garuta'' contains 100 cards, with a ''waka'' poem written on each. ''Uta-garuta'' is also the name of the game in which the deck is used. The standard collecti ...


Notes


References


External links

*
Hanafuda rules
{{Playing card packs by geography * 19th-century card games Hawaii culture Japanese card games Japanese games Korean card games Korean games Playing card decks