| かるた | |
.jpg) A group of women playing theUta-garuta version of the game at theturn of the century | |
 LateMeiji period (c. 1890) advertisement byNintendo | |
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| Competitivekaruta | |
Karuta (かるた, fromPortuguesecarta ["card"])[1] areJapaneseplaying cards. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century. These early decks were used fortrick-taking games. The earliest indigenouskaruta was invented in the town ofMiike inChikugo Province at around the end of the 16th century. The Miike karuta Memorial Hall located inŌmuta, Fukuoka, is the only municipal museum in Japan dedicated specifically to the history ofkaruta.[2][3]
Karuta packs are classified into two groups, those that are descended fromPortuguese-suited playing cards and those frome-awase.[4]E-awase originally derived fromkai-awase, which was played with shells but were converted to card format during the early 17th century. The basic idea of anye-awase karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent. It is often played by children at elementary school and junior high-school level during class, as an educational exercise.
The first indigenous Japanese deck was theTenshō karuta named after theTenshō period (1573–92).[5] It was a 48 card deck with the 10s missing likePortuguese-suited playing cards from that period. It kept the four Latinsuits of cups, coins, clubs, and swords along with the threeface cards offemale knave,knight, andking. In 1633, theTokugawa shogunate banned these cards, forcing Japanese manufacturers to radically redesign their cards. As a result of Japan's isolationistSakoku policy, karuta would develop separately from the rest of the world. In order to evade the proscription of Portuguese derived cards, makers turned the cards into very abstract designs known asmekuri karuta (Japanese:めくりかるた, English: Flip[a] cards). By the mid-20th century, allmekuri karuta fell into oblivion with the exception ofKomatsufuda (Japanese:小松札, English: Small pine cards) which is used to play Kakkuri, a game similar toPoch, found in Yafune,Fukui prefecture.[6]
TheUnsun karuta (Japanese:うんすんカルタ) deck developed in the late 17th century. It has five suits of 15 ranks each for a total of 75 cards. Six of the ranks were face cards of female knave, knight, king, "Un" (うん), "Sun" (すん), and dragon. The Portuguese deck used to have dragons on theiraces; the Unsun karuta made the aces and dragons separate cards. The order of the court cards change depending on whether it is the trump suit or not just like inOmbre. The new Guru suit used circular whirls (mitsudomoe) aspips. Unsun karuta is still used inHitoyoshi, Kumamoto, to playhachinin-meri, a game descended fromGuritipau, a relative of Ombre.[7] This game preserves some very archaic features such as inverted ranking for the pip cards in the three round suits. Inverted ranking is a feature found inMadiao,Khanhoo,Tổ tôm,Ganjifa,Tarot, Ombre, andMaw and is believed to have originated in the very earliest card games.
Kabufuda (Japanese:株札) is another derivative ofmekuri karuta but all the suits were made identical. It is used for gambling games such asOicho-Kabu. They come in decks of 40 cards with designs representing the numbers 1 through 10. There are four cards for each number and the 10 (Jack) is the only face card.
The gambling game ofTehonbiki [ja] can be played with either aHarifuda (張札) orHikifuda (引札, lit.Drawn cards[8]) set.Harifuda contains seven copies of cards numbered one to six in stylized Chinese numerals for a total of 42 cards. The 48-cardHikifuda orMamefuda (豆札, lit.Bean[b] cards[8]) has eight copies of cards with one to six coins, similar to the coins of amekuri karuta set. In Tehonbiki, the player tries to guess which number from 1 to 6 the dealer has selected.[8][9] Some sets may include indicator cards to raise or hedge bets.
Hanafuda (Japanese:花札, lit.flower cards, also called Hanakaruta) are 48 card decks with flower designs originating from the early 19th century. Instead of being divided by 4 suits with 12 cards each, a hanafuda deck is divided by 12 suits (months) with 4 cards each. Hanafuda games are mostlyfishing games.[10]
(Ita_karuta)(Page_073)_(20478559450).jpg)
Uta-garuta (歌ガルタ, lit. "poetry karuta") is a card game in which 100waka poems are written on two sets of 100 cards: one set is yomifuda (読札, lit. "reading cards"), which have the complete poem taken from theOgura Hyakunin Isshu (小倉百人一首), and the other is torifuda (取り札, lit. "grabbing cards"), which each correspond to a yomifuda and have only the last few lines of the corresponding poem on them. One person is chosen to be the reader. As the reader reads a yomifuda, the players race to find its associated torifuda before anybody else does. This game has traditionally been played on New Year's Day since 1904.[11]Competitive karuta has competitions on various levels with the Japan national championship tournament being held every January atOmi shrine (aShinto shrine) inŌtsu, Shiga since 1955.[12]
A few non-matching games exist that use only the yomifuda. Bouzu Mekuri (坊主めくり), is a simple game of chance originating from theMeiji period.Iro Kammuri [ja] (Color Crowns) is a 4-player partnership game that is related toGoita.[13][14] In both games, the poems are irrelevant, and the only parts of the cards that matter are the appearance of the poets such as their clothing, sex, or social status.
Ita-karuta (Japanese:板かるた) is a variation found inHokkaido. The torifuda are made of wood while the yomifuda remain the same or lack illustrations of the poets.[15][16] They are used to play a competitive partnership game calledshimo-no ku karuta [ja] in which the last half of the poem is read.[17]
Iroha karuta (Japanese:いろはかるた) is an easier-to-understand matching game for children, similar to Uta-garuta but with 96 cards. Instead of poems, the cards represent the 47syllables of thehiragana syllabary and addskyō (京, "capital") for the 48th (since the syllable-nん can never start any word or phrase). It uses the oldiroha ordering for the syllables which includes two obsolete syllables,wi (ゐ) andwe (ゑ). A typicaltorifuda features a drawing with akana at one corner of the card. Its correspondingyomifuda features aproverb connected to the picture with the first syllable being thekana displayed on thetorifuda. There are 3 standard Iroha karuta variants:Kamigata,Edo andOwari. Each variant has its own set of proverbs based on the local dialect and culture. The Kamigata orKyoto version is the oldest but the Edo version is the most widespread, being found all over Japan. The Owari variant existed only during the latter half of the 19th-century before being supplanted by the Edo version.
Obake karuta is an obsolete variation of Iroha karuta unique to Tokyo. The cards were created in theEdo period and remained popular through the 1910s or 1920s.[18] Each card in the deck features a hiragana syllable and a creature fromJapanese mythology; in fact,obake karuta meansghost cards ormonster cards.[18] Success requires knowledge of Japanese mythology and folklore as players attempt to collect cards that match clues read by a referee. The player who accumulates the most cards by the end of the game wins.
Obake karuta is an early example of the common Japanese fascination with classifying monsters and creating new ones. The game is one of the earliest attempts by Japanese companies to categorize legendary creatures, label them, define them, and subsequently market them. As such, it is a precursor to theGodzilla films of the 1950s and later. Even more closely,obake karuta resembles theYu-Gi-Oh! orPokémon Trading Card Game, which also involvescollecting cards that represent fabulous creatures. In fact, many Pokémon were designed specifically after creatures from Japanese mythology.[18]
Playing card packs by geography | ||
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| Belgium - Italy | ||
| Bohemia | ||
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| United States | ||
| Uruguay | ||
| Vietnam | ||
| Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand | ||
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