Hanafuda (Japanese:花札,lit. 'flower cards'[1][2]) are a type ofJapaneseplaying cards. They are typically smaller than Westernplaying cards, only 5.4 by 3.2 centimetres (2.1 by 1.3 in), but thicker and stiffer.[3] On the face of each card is a depiction of plants,tanzaku (短冊), animals, birds, or man-made objects.[4][5] One single card depicts a human. The back side is usually plain, without a pattern or design of any kind, and traditionally colored either red or black.Hanafuda are used to play a variety of games includingKoi-Koi andHachi-Hachi.
In Korea,hanafuda are known ashwatu (Korean:화투,Hanja:花鬪, 'flower battle') and made of plastic with a textured back side.[6] The most popular game isGo-stop (Korean:고스톱), commonly played during special holidays such asLunar New Year andChuseok (Korean:추석).[7][8]
In Hawaii,hanafuda is used to playSakura.[9]Hanafuda is also played inMicronesia, where it is known ashanahuda and is used to play a four-person game, which is often played in partnerships.[10]
Playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century. ThePortuguese deck consisted of 48 cards, with four suits divided into 12 ranks. The first Japanese-made decks made during theTenshō period (1573–1592) mimicked Portuguese decks and are referred to asTenshō Karuta. The main game was atrick-taking game intermediate in evolution betweenTriunfo andOmbre.[11] After Japan closed off all contact with the Western world in 1633, foreign playing cards were banned.[12]
In 1648,Tenshō Karuta were banned by theTokugawa shogunate.[13] 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 calledYomi Karuta after the popularPoch-like game ofYomi which was known by the 1680s.[14]
Through theMeiwa,An'ei, andTenmei eras (roughly 1764–1789), a game calledMekuri took the place ofYomi. It became so popular thatYomi Karuta was renamedMekuri Karuta.[14] Mechanically,Mekuri is similar to Chinese fishing games.[15] Cards became so commonly used for gambling that they were banned in 1791, during theKansei era. On the other hand,Uta-garuta such asHyakunin Isshu were officially permitted as being educationally beneficial. So as a loophole to the ban, early hanafuda were made to have old poems on some of the cards, disguising them as Uta-garuta. Remnants of this can be seen via the tanzaku-ranked cards.
The earliest known reference tohana awase (a previous version ofhanafuda) is from 1816 when it was recorded as a banned gambling tool. The earliest decks contained between 12, 20, and even 32 suits, each with one high value card, one tanzaku card, and two low-value cards.[16]
Ashana awase modernized intohanafuda, it standardized at 12 months (suits) with four rank-like categories. The majority ofhanafuda games are descended fromMekuri althoughYomi adaptations for the flower cards survived until the 20th century.[14] Though they can still be used for gambling, its structure and design is less convenient than other decks such asKabufuda. In theMeiji period, playing cards became tolerated by the authorities.
In 1889,Fusajiro Yamauchi foundedNintendo for the purposes of producing and selling hand-craftedhanafuda.[17] Nintendo has focused onvideo games since the 1970s but continues to produce cards in Japan, including themed sets based onMario,Pokémon, andKirby.[18][19][20] TheKoi-Koi game played withhanafuda is included in Nintendo's ownClubhouse Games (2006) for theNintendo DS, andClubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (2020) for theNintendo Switch.[21]
Though modern Japanese hanafuda is primarily made today by either of the long-standingOishi Tengudo (1800) or Nintendo (1889), dozens of others have manufactured hanafuda, such as Angel,Tamura Shogundo,Matsui Tengudo, Ace, Maruē, and many more.[22]
Hanafuda were likely introduced to Korea during the late 1890s[23][24] and to Hawaii in the early 1900s.[9] Since then, companies and individuals in Korea and Hawaii have produced their own hanafuda, sometimes adapting the original Japanese imagery to fit either culture. Also made for western audiences are decks which fuse hanafuda with Toranpu (トランプ, "Trumps" a.k.a. thestandard 52-card deck). These decks have indices on all their cards, and introduce a 13th suit which varies considerably by manufacturer (jokers, flowers, objects from Japanese imagery, left blank or used as a "snow" suit, left aswestern Kings, etc.).
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.[25] An extra blank card may be included to serve as a replacement. In Koreanhwatu decks, several joker cards (조커패) award various bonuses.[26]
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 gameHachi-Hachi [ja], all of the November cards count askasu, and in the gameSakura, the values of the cards are different.
| Month/suit Flower | Hikari (20 points) | Tane (10 points) | Tanzaku (5 points) | Kasu (1 point) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January Pine |  | Crane andSun |  | Poetrytanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| February Plum blossom |  | Bush warbler[a] |  | Poetry tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| March Cherry blossom |  | Curtain |  | Poetry tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| April Wisteria |  | Lesser cuckoo[b] |  | Plain tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| May Water iris |  | Eight-plank bridge |  | Plain tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| June Peony[c] |  | Butterflies |  | Blue tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| July Bush clover[d] |  | Boar |  | Plain tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| August Susuki grass[e] |  | Full moon[f] |  | Geese[g] |   | 2 cards | |||
| September Chrysanthemum[h] |  | Sake cup |  | Blue tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| October Maple |  | Sika deer |  | Blue tanzaku |   | 2 cards | |||
| November[i] Willow |  |
|  | Barn swallow[k] |  | Plain tanzaku |  | Lightning[l] | 1 card |
| December[i] Paulownia |  | Hōō |    | 3 cards | |||||
A few cards in hanafuda containJapanese text. In addition to the examples below, the Decemberkasu cards typically display the manufacturer's name and marks, similar to theAce of spades in westernplaying cards.
| Cards | Description |
|---|---|
| akayoroshi (あかよろし) with thehentaigana character𛀙 forka. It is an old Japanese phrase that means "truly wonderful," related to the phraseakiraka ni yoroshii (明らかに宜しい; "obviously good") in modern standard Japanese.[28][29] |
| mi-Yoshino (みよしの; "beautiful Yoshino") refers toYoshino, Nara, known for itsSomei-Yoshino hybridcherry trees |
| kotobuki (寿; "long life") |
Edo-period hanafuda frequently had poems on them in order to disguise themselves asuta-garuta (poem playing cards) with illustrations. This tradition continued on some cards produced after the ban on playing cards was lifted, but it is now rare. Cards that have lines of poetry on them are usually the less ornatekasu cards.
Cards made early after the end of the ban often had the name of the corresponding month on the tanzaku cards, and sometimes numbers on all the cards. This made it easier for new players to play games that require knowing what suit is associated with what number, such asYomi-derived games andkabufuda games.
In Koreanhwatu decks, the writing on the tanzaku cards is replaced with Korean text naming the type of card it is. Similar text is usually present on the blue tanzaku cards as well. In addition to the examples below, the manufacturer's name and marks are often prominently present on the various joker cards, and the manufacturer's logo is typically featured on the full moon card.
| Cards | Description |
|---|---|
   | hongdan (홍단;紅短), acalque of Japaneseakatan (赤短), short foraka-tanzaku (赤短冊; "redtanzaku") |
   | cheongdan (청단;靑短), a calque of Japaneseaotan (青短), short forao-tanzaku (青短冊; "blue tanzaku") |
 | su (cursive form of 壽 or 寿; "long life") |
Mekuri-derived games:
Yomi-derived games:
Gabo Japgi/Kabufuda-derived games:
InUnicode, a symbol to representhanafuda is available atU+1F3B4 🎴FLOWER PLAYING CARDS in theMiscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block.[30] This character is typically rendered as the Full Moon with Red Sky card.[31] It was added as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 for compatibility with aKDDI emoji character,[32] and was added toUnicode Emoji 1.0 in 2015.[31]
Nintendo'sClubhouse Games andClubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics feature hanafuda andKoi-Koi.[33][34]Mario Kart Tour includes hanafuda-themed gliders. Other video games which featureKoi-Koi include theYakuza series andSakura Wars.[35][36] Hanafuda and sets of yaku are featured in fighting game seriesSamurai Shodown.
In the 2009anime filmSummer Wars, characters playKoi-Koi, a popular hanafuda game. InNaruto, three characters (Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji) form a group known as "Ino-Shika-Cho", a card combination found in several hanafuda games. In an anime-only episode ofDragon Ball, there is a boar-deer-butterfly hybrid creature called the InoShikaCho. InDemon Slayer, the main character Tanjiro Kamado has a pair of earrings that resemble the sun hikari.
In the popular trading card gameYu-Gi-Oh!, there is an archetype known as "Flower Cardian” with hanafuda motifs for various cards.
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Media related toHanafuda at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition ofhanafuda at WiktionaryPlaying card packs by geography | ||
|---|---|---|
Historical patterns are shown in italics | ||
| Austria |  | |
| Austria - Germany | ||
| Austria-Hungary | ||
| Belgium - Italy | ||
| Bohemia | ||
| China | ||
| Denmark-Norway | ||
| France | ||
| Germany | ||
| India | ||
| Israel | ||
| Italy | ||
| Japan | ||
| Korea | ||
| Southern Netherlands | ||
| Persia | ||
| Philippines | ||
| Poland |
| |
| Russia | ||
| Spain | ||
| Sweden | ||
| Switzerland | ||
| United States | ||
| Uruguay | ||
| Vietnam | ||
| Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand | ||
