What is hanafuda

The flora for July is Japanese bush clover, also known as lespedeza or, in Japanese, hagi. It is associated with melancholy and unrequited love and has been a favourite motif with Japanese poets since time immemorial. The strange animal depicted is a young Japanese boar or inoshisi. In Japan, it is widely seen as a fearsome and reckless animal, to the point that several expressions in Japanese referring to recklessness include references to boars.

The boar is the last animal of the oriental zodiac, with people born at this time said to embody the boar's traits of determination and impetuosity. Backwoods folk in Japan sometimes name their sons after the animal in tribute to its qualities. Boars are also seen as symbols of fertility and prosperity.

Hanafuda players should take card to avoid mistaking the "beads" on these cards for those on the month of April; the beads here are in two obviously distinct colours. August is represented by maiden silvergrass, also called eulalia or susuki grass.

Traditionally, the grass was used to thatch buildings and for feed for livestock. It is one of "the seven flowers of autumn" along with bush clover, above.

Sometimes the grass is referred to as "pampas grass", but strictly that is a South American term. The moon-over-the-grass card — a bright — is, by far, the most iconic design in the hanafuda pack and is frequently extracted for use on posters, book covers and the like. The birds on the animal card are geese, probably intended to be swan geese which once wintered in Japan.

This month, it's the turn of chrysanthemum kiku. The variety shown on the cards would appear to be tomoenishiki or something very close. The chrysanthemum is a symbol of the Japanese emperor and the imperial family and historically some families cultivated it to signal their support with their rulers.

It remains a common symbol on traditional Japanese craftwork. The "animal" card shows a cup for drinking sake Japanese rice wine called a sakazuki. The letters on it are the Japanese equivalent of "good health".

Some games use the sake cup as a wildcard or joker. October features the autumnal colours of falling Japanese maple leaves momiji or kito. These symbolise calm, rest and peace. The animal card shows a young sika deer nihonjika. The deer are found today throughout the city of Nara and its many parks and temples, as they are considered to be the messengers of the Shinto gods.

Nevertheless, populations in some parts of Japan have grown to the point where the animal is now considered something of a pest. November's suit is a bit strange as it is as much about rain as it is about the plant depicted, which is willow yanagi — a Japanese word also used for a long, thin-bladed knife thought to resemble one of weeping willow's cascades.

The tree is associated with ghosts and spirits. However, the reason for the link with rain is not particularly clear as November in Japan isn't the worst month for rain. Feeling dejected one day after failing to get a promotion in his job, he was inspired by watching the relentless actions of a frog also on the card into renewing his efforts and thus becoming one of the most famous calligraphers in Japan. The bird on the animal card is a barn swallow tsubame , a symbol of good luck, fidelity in marriage, and fertility.

It's very common in Japan The suit also includes a red ribbon. For some reason, the red ribbon for this month is sometimes not allowed in hanafuda hands which permit the red ribbons from other months. The lone junk card for this month is called the lightning card or gaji in Hawaii where it is most likely to be singled out.

In some games, it can be used as a sort of super-card or joker. It is the only card in a hanafuda deck which does not show its month's flower so players have to explicitly remember which month it comes from. Instead, it depicts a rather abstract storm scene with rain, and sometimes a devil's claw, coming down from the sky to beat on a drum. The dark rectangles are possibly the torn camp curtain see March. This month's symbol is the princess tree aka paulownia, aka empress tree, aka foxglove-tree known in Japanese as kiri.

It is included in several governmental crests and seals in Japan. It was adopted as a symbol of the imperial household, particularly the empress. This mythical bird represents fire, the sun, justice, obedience, and fidelity.

In other traditions, it appears only in peaceful and prosperous times and hides itself when there is trouble. This month uniquely features three junk cards. One is always shaded a different colour usually yellow or red and features the manufacturer's logo Nintendo in this case — it performs a similar role to the ace of spades in Western decks.

Some games also distinguish it in play. Note that Korean games swap the months of November and December around. For some reason, they also tend to recolour the paulownia flowers, often to red and yellow. Having said that, real paulownia never occur in purples as dark as that shown on the Japanese version of the cards. Koi-Koi Prerequisite: One deck of 48 Hanafuda cards Number of players: 2 Number of round: 6 or 12 Aim of the game: Score the most points at the end of 6 or 12 rounds by recovering the cards on the table.

To get a card, you need to match a card from the player's hand with a card from the table from the same month. The points are obtained by forming captured hands - yaku - with the cards that the player had recovered. How to determine the dealer: Each player draws a card and whoever is closest to the first month starts the game. If two players have a card from the same month, one with a greater point value become the dealer. This player will distribute the cards.

Distribution: The dealer distributes 2 by 2, 8 cards per player and 8 cards on the table, the rest of the cards form the stock cards.

On the table, if there are 4 cards from the same month, the dealer will distributes again; then, in the hand of each player, if a hand has 4 cards from the same month or 4 pairs of different months, the player gets 6 points and the round is over.

Play: Players take turns to get the cards on the table and form a yaku to score points. Sakura , also known as Hawaiian-style Koi-Koi or Higo-Bana , can be played with individual players or between teams with two to seven people. I recommend playing without yaku bonus card combinations your first couple games. The player who drew the card of the earliest month of the year is the dealer.

Use the following chart to determine how many cards to deal based on the number of players in the game:. In Sakura , the dealer always goes first. Then, play goes clockwise this is our own house rule, opposite the traditional direction of play. Play a card from your hand into the field. Put any cards with zero point value in the discard pile.

Flip over a card from the deck into the field. Again, if the suit matches, capture both cards. Put zero-point-value cards in the discard pile. Whenever a player plays or flips over the Lightning Storm "Gaji" card, that player may match it with any other card in the field.

Capture both cards and place the Lighting Storm card on top of the other captured card in your points section, even if it's a zero point card. After play ends, the owner of the Lightning Storm will get to capture any cards left on the field that match the suit of the card captured by the Lightning Storm. Note: If the Lightning Storm card is dealt to the field during the initial deal, it is no longer wild, acting like a plain November card instead.

At any point during gameplay, if any player has sight of all four cards of a suit e. All players can therefore see what Yaku the others are attempting to complete and strategize accordingly. It shows the combination names and their point value in order from strongest to weakest. Points in Koikoi are awarded based on the card combinations created. It derives its name from Ononomichikaze holding his umbrella. The following two combinations are easy to make because they consist of only two cards each, and a player may make both with three cards.

The key card is the Sakazuki, which is why I mentioned earlier that it is a very desirable card. They are also easy to remember because their names are straightforward. Next a combination using the non-bird animals; the boar, the deer, and the butterfly.

As a side note, one can clearly see the ribbons are purple and I have called them the purple ribbons above for simplicity sake, but these off-colour namings are common in Japan. For example a green traffic light is called a blue light.

In addition to the Inoshikachou combination, there are other animals and picture cards. In addition to the Akatan and Aotan combinations above, there are red ribbons without writing. These are the plants and flowers alone, and you must collect at least 10 of them. Collecting 10 cards merits 1 point, with 1 point for each additional card beyond Ending the game in this way ensures your victory, regardless of what others have collected. A game ended on another players turn results in your loss.

Careful though, if another player lands a combination and ends the game on their turn, you have lost. For example, you make Inoshikachou.

You look around and see that no one is close to making anything. Play continues. Your opponents start to collect cards. One player is now just a card away from making San-koh. Luckily, on your next turn you collect two more Ta-ne cards, the Yatsuhashi and the Bush Warbler.

Now you have both Inoshikachou and Ta-ne. At this point you want to Agari, because ending on your turn ensures your opponent never gets to make their San-koh.

This is the best I can do to explain the game. By all means, please also refer to the rules as described on Wikipedia here if you need more information. The optimal course of action if you wish to practice and understand more is to obviously begin playing.

You may, however, not have access to a deck or any opponents. Luckily there are several wonderful Apps available for playing Hanafuda. The following are my top 2 recommendations. Please note I am not an employee of Cross Field Inc. There is also a version for beginners, which includes 8 lessons on the rules and 11 lessons on strategy.

Unfortunately it is not in English, so your Japanese needs to be up to snuff for this one. Hanafuda Koikoi for beginners also by Cross Field Inc. Both of these games are beautifully constructed.