Unsun Karuta [うんすんカルタ], was a Japanese karuta (playing card) deck that expanded the Portuguese-designed decks such as Tensho Karuta to accomodate more players.
A further expansion was also made, called Sunkun Karuta.
The deck contains 5 suits, with 15 cards per suit, for a total of 75 cards.
The deck contains all suits from the standard Portuguese deck, and adds only 1 additional suit: Drums.
Suits are categorized into 2 groups: Long Suits and Round Suits.
The groups correspond to Black Suits and Red Suits of Western Playing Cards respectively.
Each suit has number cards from 1 to 9, represented by the number of pips on the card. Cards that have the number ‘1’ have 1 pip instead of a dragon like in Tensho Karuta and Mekurifuda.
In addition, there are six court cards:
| Value | Japanese Name | English Name | Depiction |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Robai | Dragon | A dragon (may be of Portuguese or Chinese design) |
| 11 | Sota | Maid | A woman |
| 12 | Uma | Horse | A knight or horseman riding a horse |
| 13 | Kiri | King | A Samurai |
| 14 | Un | God | One of the Seven Lucky Gods |
| 15 | Sun | Chinese | A Chinese official wearing a futou |
| Game | Players | Family | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hachi-nin Meri | 8 | Trick-taking | Japan |