Karuta [骨牌 - かるた] is a general term for a wide variety of Japanese-style playing cards.
The name comes from the Portuguese word, carta, which means ‘card’.
It is important to note that the word karuta was historically used by the Japanese to refer to playing cards in general, not just those that were made in Japan.
The term karuta is also often used specifically in reference to the competitive game of Hyakunin-Isshu.
Unlike Western playing cards [トランプ, ‘trump’] and Chinese “paper cards” [紙牌, chīpai or shihai], which are made of thin pasteboard and can be bent to a degree without damaging the cards, Karuta are usually thick, and made up of several layers of paper glued together, which are wrapped together with an even bigger sheet of paper that also forms the borders of the front of the cards. Because of this, it is impossible to bend the cards without damaging them, and are treated more like tiles than cards (this might possibly be a reason why they were refered to by the kanji 骨牌, which literally means ‘bone tiles’, despite them not being made out of bone material).
The kanji 骨牌 could also be read as koppai, which is based on the Chinese reading, gǔpái, which is actually used to refer to tiles that used to be made out of bone, such as chinese dominoes and Mahjong. This was cleverly used by the Japanese government to increase the scope of the Karuta Tax Law to include Mahjong sold in Japan, by changing the reading from “Karuta” to “Koppai”.
¶ Two Major Families of Karuta
Karuta sets are classified into two major families:
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E-awase (絵合わせ, ‘picture-matching’ or ‘card-matching’) - these are Karuta that has its roots on the Heian-period (794-1185) game of Kai-Ooi [貝覆い, ‘shell covering’], which was originally a game played by the noble class. The adaptation of the game into karuta brought the game to the masses. The gameplay generally involves matching pairs of cards, or matching a certain type of card with its equivalent other type of card.
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Portuguese Deck derivatives - these are Karuta that are based on the Portuguese playing card decks [南蛮カルタ, nanban karuta] that were introduced by the Portuguese to Japan in the 1540’s. They are usually used for gambling and were subject to bans during the Sakoku (1603-1868).
¶ Sets belonging to E-awase
| Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Uta-garuta, a.k.a. Uta-awase Karuta | A sub-family of E-awase that involves poetry. Usually the two halves of poems are split into two cards. Examples are Genji Monogatari Karuta and Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Karuta. |
| Ogura Hyakunin Isshu | 200 cards - Two decks of 100 cards each. One deck’s yomifuda [reading cards] each contain a waka poem and a depiction of the poet; the other deck’s torifuda [grabbing cards] only contain the second half of the poem depicted on one card from the first deck. This belongs to a wider family of Uta-Garuta, poetry cards. The yomifuda are also sometimes used to play other games not involving poetry. |
| Tatoe-awase Karuta | A sub-family of E-awase that involves proverbs and idioms. Usually one type of cards has the proverbs written on them, and the other type of cards has pictures related to the proverbs. Examples are Iroha Karuta and Dosai Karuta. |
| Iroha-Karuta | 96 cards - Two decks of 48 cards each. Essentially a simpler variant of Uta-Garuta. Each card in the first deck features a (usually hiragana) character, and each card in the second deck contains a proverb or quote beginning with a character from the first deck. |
| Dosai Karuta | A card set similar to Iroha Karuta in that its theme revolves around proverbs, however, the torifuda do not have any syllables on them. Originally a family-friendly game, it was eventually used to play a gambling game similar to bingo. |
| Hana-awase Karuta | The ancestor of Hanafuda (not to be confused with the game of the same name). Each set has a maximum of 400 cards. Originally having 100 types of flowers, each flower appears in four cards. In some sets, One of the four cards also has a tanzaku on it, and another one has a bird, animal, or object on it. Some sets have points written on them, while others only have the name of the flower. Later sets would gradually be reduced in number of cards, until it was finally reduced to just 48 cards. |
| Hanafuda | Generally 48 cards, with some exceptions. 12 suits of 4 cards each, of varying types depending on the suit. They feature somewhat abstracted depictions of culturally relevant flora and fauna pairings, with each suit represented by a species of plant. Originally belonging to a wide family of E-awase (picture matching cards), Hanafuda was adapted to play a wide variety of games, including those played with other types of cards. |
| Junishi-Awase | 48 cards - Consists of 4 cards for each of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals, which makes the structure comparable to Hanafuda. May be in either Menko or Playing Card format. Each card has points written on them, which vary depending on the manufacturer. |
| Garafuda | 140 cards with illustrations on them, and 140 sticks with the names of the corresponding cards written on them. Sometimes, there are additional sticks with markings that are worth additional points. Used to play a lottery game of the same name. |
¶ Sets derived from Portuguese cards
| Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Tensho Karuta | The predecessor of Mekuri Karuta, and described as a faithful recreation of the original Portuguese playing cards. They were widely popular in Japan prior to the banning of Portuguese playing cards. Likewise, they can be used to play a similar variety of games to their toranpu and hanafuda relatives. |
| Unsun Karuta | 75 cards. 5 suits of 15 cards each. Primarily associated with the 8-player trick-taking game Hachi-Nin Meri. |
| Sunkun Karuta | 96 cards + 1 portuguese dragon (joker). 6 suits of 16 cards each. |
| Mekuri Karuta | Generally 48 cards. 4 suits of 12 cards each, with each card in hierarichical order from 1 to 12. The 10, 11, and 12s are generally court cards, though often extremely obscured by abstraction. They feature the same suits as their Portuguese predecessors - swords [isu], batons [hau], coins [ouru], and cups [kotsu]. Mekuri karuta come in a wide variety of regional variants, and can be used to play a similar variety of games to their toranpu and hanafuda relatives. |
| Shimafuda | A mekurifuda derivative with numbers explicitly written on each card, and the value and type of each card is denoted by sticks or a circle. It remained in Gushikawa, Uruma City, in the Okinawa prefecture of Japan. |
| Hanafuda | Generally 48 cards, with some exceptions. 12 suits of 4 cards each, of varying types depending on the suit. They feature somewhat abstracted depictions of culturally relevant flora and fauna pairings, with each suit represented by a species of plant. Originally belonging to a wide family of E-awase (picture matching cards), Hanafuda was adapted to play a wide variety of games, including those played with other types of cards. |
| Kabufuda | 40 cards. Four copies each of numbers 1 through 10, mostly represented by abstract black stripes, ultimately derived from the Portuguese suit of batons. The Aces are abstracted from dragons and the 10s are “court” cards, though the subject depicted has changed over time from a monk to a Jack. Primarily used to play certain gambling games of the kabu and kingo genres. This belongs to a family of One-suited Karuta. |
| Tehonbiki | 3 types of cards are used: Harifuda (handled by the players), Hikifuda (handled by the banker), and Mefuda (large wooden tiles, also handled by the banker). The common trait between these 3 types of cards are their composition; 6 cards bearing or representing the numbers 1 to 6. |
¶ Other Japanese Cards/Games
| Type | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Menko | Cards that are thick and made of cardboard, and are used by children to play physical games involving throwing the card onto the opponent’s card on the floor. |
| Goita | Modified Shogi pieces are used to play a game of the same name. From Noto Town, Fugeshi District, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Kazoku-awase | A straight adaptation of the British card game, Happy Families. |
| Tori-sashi | Karuta used for playing the role game Tori-sashi (‘Bird-catcher’) existed, although the game could be played using strips of paper or even hanafuda. |
| Kai-Ooi | A clamshell-matching game from the Nara and Heian periods. The clamshells used were eventually decorated with painted motifs that later appeared in E-awase karuta. |
| Trump | It is the Japanese term for the standard Western playing cards. Imported to Japan after Sakoku ended in 1868, the first locally-made Western playing cards in Japan were made in 1902 by Nintendo. |
| Tobacco Cards | Some cards included in Cigarette packs (especially those of Murai Bros. & Co.) have Hanafuda patterns on them, which can be collected to form the entire deck. |