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Dōsai Karuta [道才かるた or 道斎かるた] was a type of Tatoe-awase Karuta (Proverb-matching Karuta) in similar vein to Iroha Karuta. It was popular in the Kyoto and Osaka areas of Japan during the Edo period.
The name comes from the proverb, kore ni kori yo dousaibo [これに懲りよ道才坊, “Do learn a lesson this time, Dousaibo”].
It was thought to be originally designed to be played by children as an educational game for teaching proverbs, but it was eventually used to play a bingo-style gambling game similar to Mubeyama karuta.
Just like Iroha Karuta, the set is divided into two types of cards: Yomifuda (読み札, “reading cards”) and Torifuda (取り札, “grabbing cards”).
Each Yomifuda contains a proverb, sometimes only a part of it.
Each corresponding Torifuda contains an illustration related to the proverb on the Torifuda, as well as a circle with the first syllable of the writing, written in hiragana.
Sometimes, numbers are written on both the Yomifuda and Torifuda.
Depending on the time period and the manufacturer, a set of Dōsai Karuta may contain different numbers of cards, and contain slightly different sets of proverbs.
In total, there are 113 parables known to have been used in all known Dōsai Karuta sets, but in each set, only a part of that number is used.
For example, the Matsui Tengudo version contained only 62 proverbs. The set contains 62 Yomifuda with black backs, 62 Torifuda with red backs, 6 black-backed cards each with the number 1 to 6 marked on them in similar fashion to Harifuda in Tehonbiki, 6 red-backed cards each with the number 1 to 6 marked similarly to the black-backed ones, 2 black-backed blank cards and 2 red-backed blank cards. In total, the entire set contains 140 cards.
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