Karuta: Japanese card game graphics

9 Jan 2007 Category: Arts & Crafts, Illustration, Japan, Products

Karuta: Japanese card game graphics

Did you have nice holiday? PingMag is finally back to regular articles from today!

Hello, PingMag readers! Did you enjoy our illustration series? We are finally back to regular articles from today!

New Year in Japan is a very special, traditional time: traditional food, traditional rites, traditional drinking - oops! and also traditional games! Like every year on new year’s day all my relatives got together at my grandparents’ place and had an annual “Karuta tournament.” Looking at the designs of these beautiful traditional playing cards and being a writer for PingMag I could not resist planning my next article - although I should have focussed on the game…

Written by Ryoko

Imagine this nice tradition: young and old gather in the living room, a little bit more sake here, some more snacks there with red cheeks of excitement, eyes focussing on the cards. The grandmother in the corner reads to the family from a ‘Yomifuda’ - a reading card with a traditional Japanese Waka poem or a proverb. Who of the players will then be the first to spot the matching ‘Efuda’ (picture card) to suit the poem she is just reading? Sometimes the theme of that particular poetry (e.g. a poem about rain) is illustrated on the Karuta, sometimes it is way more tricky than that and you have to know how the whole poem goes to actually guess what the correct illustration could be.

Japanese karuta ‘Iroha’ style (based on the old Japanese way of writing): Yomifuda - reading cards - on the left and Efuda -picture cards - or also called Torifuda - grabbing cards - on the right. According to Wikipedia, the name “Karuta” actually comes from “Carta” meaning “card game” in Portuguese. However, Japan created an original way of playing cards combining imagery and poetry.

The one who spots the matching card quickest can win some money - so it’s a little bit like a traditional family gambling session, but it’s so funny to see everyone getting into it, although the amount of money might not be so huge in the end. People jump around on the floor to grab the card with the right illustration. Once the amount of cards gets less and less, people get into it even more!

To find out more about Karuta I visited Okuno Karuta in Jinbo-cho, Tokyo - a shop specializing on different kinds of karuta. Let me quickly thank the friendly staff of this special shop established in the Taisho period for helping me to write this article. THANK YOU! And here we go!

Hyakunin Isshu

You might have heard of this oldest style of all karuta called Hyakunin Isshu - “hundred people poetry”. The poetry was written by one hundred different contributors including feudal lords and princesses. Again while someone reads out poetry, you have to recognize either the other part of the poetry written on the card or know the author’s portrait matching the lines read to you. Again -fastest grabber wins!

Hyakunin Isshu karuta showing poetry and poets’ portrait on the card. This Hyakunin Isshu is from the late Edo priod.

The Hyakunin Isshu karuta above was made in the late Edo period. In those days, there were no good printing techniques obviously, so everything was printed only in black, then painted by hand. However, the very simple printing technique and the the combination of light water colors created a very mysterious atmosphere, and also the very fine lines of writing make these cards look even more beautiful.

Hanafuda

Hanafuda (originally also called Hana Karuta) belong to the same family of playing cards, but the way of playing is sligthly different. Instead of one reading and the others grabbing the right ones, you can now hold your seven cards in your hands and try to pick matching cards belonging to a set of 4 cards - or create different combinations of cards based on old poems, seasons, nature motifs etc. Hanafuda feature illustrations of flowers and animals related to each month of a year (e.g. January has a pine tree, February has a plum tree..). So if you play the game in Januray and you have a pine tree combination, it counts even more!

Hanafuda - a little different way of playing cards traditionally. These have a very graphical, modern style.

There are lots of different kinds of Hanafuda and if you have a closer look at one of them, you will realize how beautiful they are. Hanafuda used to be very popular but unfortunately their popularity is gradually declining, also because of the spread of the computer and internet games.

Hanafuda by Nintendo

Trademake of Nintendo Karuta with Napoleon in the middle

When you hear the name of Nintendo, you will probably think about somethink like Nintendo DS or Wii, but did you know that the very first products they produced were Hanafuda? Above you can spot the old trademark of the Nintendo Hanafuda.

Hana Karuta from the Meiji Period


Full moon motive of August - Pampas series

Don’t get fooled only because both have something like a moon in there! This is actually a white crane of the January Pine series.

Man running in the rain - November Rain series

a bush warbler on a cherry tree - February plum tree series

There was a time when it was forbidden to produce traditional Karuta for gambling - so instead of those cards we introduced earlier - now Hanafuda came up. Comparing these Meiji Period Hanafuda to modern style Hanafuda it’s easy to spot the huge difference in style.

Kobana Karuta

Kobana Karuta: it’s a really tiny set of Hanafuda!

The normal size of Karuta is already quite small, but these Kobana Karuta are even smaller. Hand-drawn Kobana Karuta are really precious and are definitely one of these super-traditional-Japanese-things…!

Yokai Hana Karuta

Now you might think that Hanafuda are all just pretty and nice and the combination of karuta and monsters might sound a bit odd to you… Have a look at these and you will realize how perfectly they match.


Yokai Hana Karuta: Scary monster cards

Loooooong tongue!

Happy monsters!

Very famous - the Medama Oyaji - Eye Ball Old Man!

These Yokai Hana Karuta feature monsters by the very famous Japanese monster-cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki. His illustrations are really worth checking out!

Edo Yokai Karuta

Edo Yokai Karuta: Ah.. scary motifs!

More scary motifs! These Yokai Karuta are a reprinted edition of original Yokai Karuta from the Edo Period. These old Japanese style monsters are also very impressive!

Shikijima Hanafuda

Hana Karuta, Shikijima: Play and learn! You can lean the names of beautiful flowers. The illustratiuons are drawn by a woodblock artist, Takumi Ito.

Made by woodblock artist Takumi Ito these Shikijima Hanafuda have the names of flowers written on them and they act as some kind of “learning game cards”. By the time you finish playing the game, you know all flowers by heart. Takumi also drew landscapes of famous countrysides or famous stone images of Buddha on his cards. Well, as I said: a learning game!

Iroha Karuta - Kenji Miyazawa Karuta

Now we come to Iroha Karuta (also briefly introduced above). Iroha Karuta got their name from the historical Kana usage of Japanese. Instead of a-i-u-e-o, it was i-ro-ha-ni-ho-he-to. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make any sense to you and simply keep smiling!

Kenji Miyazawa Karuta: These illustrations are from Kenji Miyazawa’s Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru “Chumon no oi mise”.

Inspired by Kenji Miyazawa’s poetry, Takumi Ito made another great set of Karuta called Miyazawa Kenji Karuta.

Edo Iroha & Kirigami Iroha


Edo Iroha & Kirigami Iroha: Edo wood block printing used for Iroha Karuta

Kirigami Karuta

These are two old Edo-period style Karuta. One is using wood block printing for Iroha Karuta, the other one uses Kirigami - a certain technique of cutting paper. Both techniques are very simple, but work great as illustrations.

Issa Karuta


Issa Karuta: A girl playing with a ball

frog parent and child

These Kirigami style illustrations are based on Issa Kobayashi’s poem.

Mame Ichi roku

Mame Ichi roku: red, white, black with strong fonts!

This style of Karuta is called Mame Ichi Roku and made in the Kansai area. As you might guess by this strong and clear almost “Izakaya style” design, these were used for gambling. The very simple combination of white, black, red and strong Edo style typography makes this a designers’ favorite!

Dosai Karuta

Illustration of Dosai Karuta were drawn with many lines -a unique style of illustration!

Dosai Karuta were originally used as Karuta for kids, but somehow they too ended up as tools for gambling.

Unsun Karuta

Very rare and unusual Unsun Karuta that always comes in a paulownia wooden box - if you can afford it!

All lined up, these karuta look like Mah-Jong tiles!

Aaaaaaand - gambling again! These so called Unsun Karuta originally derived from Holland and came to Japan during the Edo Period. For some reason this particular way of playing Karuta is known only in Hitoyoshi city in Kumamoto prefecture and less than 50 people actually know how to play it.

Takuboku Karuta


Takuboku Karuta: a very innocent…

…look of a girl!

This Takuboku Karuta is a reprinted edition of a supplement of the magazine called Shojo no Tomo (”friends of girls”) from 1939. The combination of very lyrical poems by Takuboku Iahikawa and a very girly illustration of Junichi Nakahara are truly beautiful!

At the end… Oryori Iroha Karuta

This last Karuta we introduce is called Oryori Iroha Karuta and is supposed to teach you the important things of life! However, I am not so sure if this old wisdom is still applicable today…


A wife who is a good cook is better than the wife who has a good look.

Well - this one must certainly be the matching card!

So, what is your favorite Karuta then?

67 Comments

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