Cherry Blossom [桜, sakura] is the name of a suit in traditional hanafuda decks. It is generally taken to be the third suit, representing the month of March [3月, sangatsu] or the number 3.
The cards in this suit all feature red and pink cherry blossoms. There are two Chaff cards, one Poetry Ribbon, and one Bright. The Bright card of the Cherry Blossom suit features a curtain [幕, maku] on the lower half of the card, behind which one can infer the presence of people viewing the beautiful cherry blossoms.
¶ Cards
¶ Curtain
Cherry Blossoms with Curtain [桜に幕, sakura ni maku],[1] or simply Curtain, is the Bright card of the Cherry Blossom suit.
The Curtain is of great value in Koi-Koi, as it can be used in conjunction with the Sake Cup for a quick victory, as well as being useful to make the valuable series of Bright yaku. It is also particularly useful in a wide array of other games due to its high point value and the variety of yaku that it forms.
In both Six Hundred and Mushi, it combines with the other Bright cards to form the most valuable yaku in each game (“Four Brights” and “Five Brights,” respectively). It also combines with the Crane and Bush Warbler to make “Three Brights,” (also known as “Big Three”) in both games.
In Six Hundred, when captured alongside the other cards of its suit, it forms “Cherry Blossom Stripe,” and when captured with the Sake cup, forms “Flower Viewing Sake.”
¶ Poetry Ribbon
Cherry Blossoms with Poetry Ribbon [桜に赤短, sakura ni akatan] is the Ribbon card of the Cherry Blossom suit, and one of the three Poetry Ribbons.
The Cherry Blossom Ribbon combines with the Pine Ribbon and Plum Blossom Ribbon in a large number of games to form the yaku variously called “Poetry Ribbons,” “Red Ribbons,” “Small Three,” etc.
Unlike the other two Poetry Ribbons, which read “akayoroshi,” this card’s ribbon features the text “Miyoshino” in hiragana, referring to the town of Yoshino, Nara, which is known for its beautiful cherry blossoms. This is seen even in older patterns that do not have text on the other two Poetry Ribbons.
¶ Chaff
The two Chaff cards of this suit feature upward-branching cherry blossoms, usually pink and red in color. As with many other suits, these cards are often visually weighted in opposite directions from one another, one to the left and one to the right.
¶ Cultural significance
Cherry blossoms are the national flower of Japan, featuring prominently in art, literature, and decorative motifs. Because they bloom rather shortly and are easily blown away by strong wind or washed away by rain, they symbolize emphemeral beauty. They remind that life is short, and to focus on the present. They tend to bloom in the third month of the old lunar calendar, which is actually in April in the modern calendar.
Both the Curtain card and the common Flower Viewing yaku are references to the flower viewing festival [花見, hanami], which are open-air picknicks and parties that are commonly held under the blooming cherry (or sometimes plum) trees in spring. Historically, people would tie a rope between cherry trees to hang a curtain on it (or sometimes an ornate kimono), to mark it as the meeting place for a flower viewing party and shield it from the wind. This custom is said to originate from nobles of the Heian period (9th-12th centuries), but it spread to common people in the Edo period (17th-19th centuries), which in turn may have influenced early hanafuda. Nowadays these curtains are no longer used.
¶ Bibliography
- Ōishi Tengudō, “花札の謎シリーズ ！３月札『桜に幕』前篇” and “後編,” blog posts, August and December 2014.
- Rin & Char, “各月に描かれた絵柄の意味,” りんとちゃーの花しらべ, blog post, September 2019.
- Hanafuda Hawaii, “Symbols and Motifs in Hanafuda,” March 2025.
¶ Footnotes
In Japanese, the Curtain card is less commonly also called sakura ni manmaku [桜に幔幕, ‘Cherry Blossoms with Curtain’] or mankai no sakura ni manmaku [満開の桜に幔幕, ‘Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom with Curtain’]. ↩︎