Kazoku-awase (家族合わせ, ‘family matching’) is a straight-up adaptation of the British card game, Happy Families, using Japanese-designed karuta.
Each set could vary greatly in composition, number, and design. A common theme with these sets of cards is that there are 3 to 5 cards in the set that belong to one family, and the set is composed of a varying number of families.
Other themed Kazoku-awase sets exist, such as Doubutsu-Awase (動物合わせ, ‘animal matching’) and Juunishi-Awase (十二支合わせ, ‘zodiac matching’) (not to be confused with a set of cards with the same name).
It is possible to be played by 2 players or more, but is best played by 3 or 4 players.
The deck of cards is equally divided to the players. Ideally, each player must be dealt an equal amount of cards in their hand, so some families must be removed from the game for this reason, depending on the number of players.
Players choose the first player and the direction of turns in the game.
During a player’s turn, they ask any one of the other players for a specific card (Example: A specific family member of a specific person):
Lying is absolutely discouraged in this game.
When a player completes a family, they place it on the table face-down in front of them.
The game continues until all families are completed. The player with the most completed families wins.