TEACHING TUESDAY

B JICC.JapanEmbDC
F user/JICCDC
V japanembdc
O JICCDC
TEACHING TUESDAY
HANAFUDA
M A Y 2 4 , 2 0 16
Hanafuda (花札) is a deck of ancient Japanese “flower” playing cards, used
to play several different types of games. The development of hanafuda
was influenced by Portuguese traders back in the 9th century. Traditionally a 3 person game, players take turns matching cards to get the highest
score. Depending on the game variant, the winner is determined by a certain set of rules and certain matchings of cards.
Each hanafuda deck consists of 48 cards in 12 suites, one suite for each
month. Each card depicts a flower or nature theme from the month it
represents, whether cherry blossoms in March or maple leaves in October. Like the traditional karuta, hanafuda are identified by these images.
In the 9th century, many Japanese were inspired by the game hombre,
which was played by Portuguese traders. As cards became more popular,
the Japanese began to convert them to traditional Japanese styles. The
first was unsun karuta, featuring 75 cards decorated with traditional art.
Through the Edo period, unsun karuta eventually transformed into mekuri
karuta, a 48-card deck divided into four sets of 12. The eventual result
was hanafuda, a combination of traditional Japanese games and Western
playing cards.
As the base of several of Japan’s most popular card games, hanafuda
continue to influence Japanese life even today. One example is the now-famous video game maker, Nintendo, which was originally founded in 1889
as a creator and printer of hanafuda cards under the name Nintendo Koppai.
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