Ino-Shika-Chō - 猪鹿蝶 [いのしかちょう, lit. “boar-deer-butterfly”] is a simple Hanafuda fishing game for three players, which was posted on Report Station (a website that shares news and articles about Shinkansen and other Japanese trains, as well as tourism, video games, and other miscellaneous articles) on November 2021.
The name comes from the highest scoring Yaku in the game.
The game is a Hana-Awase variant, designed to be fun for children aged 3 and older as well as adults. The differences with Hana-Awase are:
- There are no Teyaku.
- The Dekiyaku in the game were selected for the purpose of being easy to remember.
- The score calculation was simplified by treating Chaff as 0 points.
- The scoring system is cumulative instead of a zero-sum system, making it less suited for playing with gambling-style tokens or chips.
- A wild card rule was implemented to make the game more exciting.
(It works like the wild card in Mushi, which is also added in some local variants of Hana-Awase, except it is a bit simplified in this game.)
¶ Setup
Game setup involves shuffling the deck, distributing the initial cards, and choosing the first player.
The first player is not called “dealer” or “oya” [親 “parent”, “boss”] in the original rules, presumably because an adult may want to deal regardless of whether they are the first player.
The rules do not mention the amount of rounds to play. Presumably it is determined during play depending on when the players feel like stopping.
Some people may want to determine the number of rounds beforehand (e.g. 6 or 12 rounds), as is customary in most hanafuda games.
Any other house rules should also be established at this point in order to keep gameplay smooth and fair.
¶ Distributing the Initial Cards
After shuffling the deck, the cards are distributed.
In the three-player version of the game, 7 cards are dealt to each player, and 6 cards face-up to the table.
The remainder of the deck is placed face-down to form the draw pile.
Although the website only explains three-player rules, the game can easily be adapted to a different number to accomodate more or fewer children. Compare with the card distribution in Min-Hwatu for examples.
¶ Determining the first player and turn order
Determine whether to play in clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, and determine the first player with any preferred method.
The website does not recommend any specific method, but as an example, it mentions playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine the first player and going clockwise from there.
Most hanafuda games are traditionally played in anti-clockwise order.
Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with more than two players is common in Japan. There are two common methods:
1 - Play normally. If all three hand shapes are played, it is considered a tie, just like if only one shape is played. If there are two or more winners, they play each other in the next round until one remains.
2 - Play with only rock and paper to divide into two groups. The largest group is eliminated. Play until one person remains.
¶ 3-card rule (optional)
If 3 cards of the same month are dealt to the table or to a player’s hand, then one of the cards should be replaced with a card from the deck.
If 4 cards of the same month are dealt to the table or to a player’s hand, then two of the cards should be replaced with a card from the deck.
In the tutorial video, 3 cards on the field are flipped face down and shuffled. One card is randomly selected to be put at a random place in the middle of the deck, a new card is drawn from the top of the deck to replace it, and the three cards are flipped face up again.
If it is decided that this rule will not be used, then proceed to deal with such situations like you would in Hana-awase.
¶ Gameplay
The first player plays their turn first, and turn to play passes in the direction that was determined earlier. The core gameplay and turn structure is utterly typical of hanafuda fishing games; if you’re already familiar with Koi-Koi and its ilk, then this section will be nothing new.
¶ Turns
On their turn, a player chooses a single card from their hand and plays it to the table.
- If it belongs to the same month as another card on the table, then the cards match, and this matching pair is moved to the player’s score pile.
- If the played card matches with two cards on the table, then the player may choose which one they capture.
- If the played card matches three cards on the table, then all three are captured along with the played card (this is to prevent cards from becoming ‘stuck’ on the table and unable to be captured). To help in recognising this case, three cards of the same month on the table are often collected into a small pile at the beginning of the round.
- If the played card does not match any card, then it remains on the table, and may subsequently be captured by other played cards.
If a card is played that matches something on the table, then the player must capture, as described above. However, there is no obligation to play a card that matches something, even if the player has one in their hand; they may, if they wish, elect to play a card that matches nothing on the table.
As is typical of hanafuda games, each player’s score pile should be kept face-up and laid out on the table, so that its contents are fully visible to all players. Ideally, the cards should also be arranged by type (Brights, Animals, Ribbons, and Chaff) to make detecting yaku easier.
After a card has been played from their hand, the player takes the top card of the draw pile, turns it face-up, and immediately plays it to the table in the same fashion.
After both cards have been played- one from the player’s hand, and one from the draw pile- the turn ends, and the next player takes their turn.
¶ Wild Card
The 
Lightning card serves as a wild card, and can be used to capture any other individual card.
In Japanese, a wild card in hanafuda is called an oni card [鬼札 - おにふだ oni-fuda]. An oni is a kind of ogre or demon. In this game it is said that the ogre “eats” a card when capturing it.
The rules for using the wild card are the same as the rules in Mushi, except that it can be used to capture Willow cards. (It is also very similar to the wild card rules in the Hawaiian game Sakura, except it cannot be blocked by another player, and it behaves differently when located on the field.)
There are 3 cases:
-
If it is dealt on a player’s hand, that player may use it to capture a non-Willow card during any of his/her turns.
-
If it is drawn from the deck, it must capture a card on the field.
-
If it is dealt on the field during the start of the round, then the dealer must capture it with the card drawn from the draw pile.
In Case 3, the following process is recommended (presumably to make it easier for young children):
- When dealing the cards and the wild card appears, take the top card of the draw pile (without looking at it) and place it face down on top of the Lightning card.
- In the first player’s first turn, he/she plays a card from his/her hand as normal.
- Afterward, instead of drawing a card from the draw pile, the player reveals the card on top of the Lightning card. It and the Lightning card both go to the dealer’s capture area.
The rules do not explain what to do in the rare situation when the wild card is drawn from the deck at a time when are no cards left on the field to capture. This should be resolved by house rule.
According to Mushi-style rules, in that case the player would leave the wild card on the field. Then the next player is required to capture the wild card with a card from the deck, the same way as if it was dealt on the field at the start of the round.
¶ End of Round
The round ends when all players run out of cards in their hand and the draw pile is exhausted.
Due to the usage of a wild card, most rounds will end with two unpaired cards - one Willow, and one that matches the suit of whatever card was captured by the Lightning.
In this case, the last Willow will be added to the scoring area of the player who captured the other two non-wild Willows, and the remaining card is added to the scoring area of the player who used the Lightning to capture its mate.
If the
At this point, the scores of each player are tallied for the round, as described below.
¶ Scoring
As this is a game designed to be played by children, the scoring system is cumulative, meaning that scores obtained by a player during every round add up to that player’s total score in the game.
First, players must count the points from their captured cards. To facilitate easier counting of points, all Chaff are considered worth 0 points.
| Card Type | Value | Number in Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Brights | 20 | 5 |
| Animals | 10 | 9 |
| Ribbons | 5 | 10 |
| Chaff | 0 | 24 |
This gives the deck a total point value of 240 points.
Adding all players’ scores during one round should equal 240 points.
Next, the yaku are handled. Each player adds up the total value of their captured yaku, and they recieve this value from each of the other players.
For example, if player A has 40 points’ worth of yaku, then they score 80 points in total- 40 from player B, and 40 from player C- while players B and C will each lose 40 points.
In short, the total amount of points gained or lost by each player at the end of the round will be given by the following:
Player's Score = Player's Total Card Points + (Total Value of Player's Yaku x (Number of Players - 1)) - Total Value of All Opponents' Yaku,
Even after yaku scoring is handled, adding all players’ scores during one round should equal 240 points.
The rules of this game do not mention how to determine the first player of the next round. Presumably this is meant to be determined by house rule.
It is customary in most hanafuda games that the player with the highest score at the end of the round becomes the dealer for the next round. In the event of a tie, the player who was earliest in the turn order becomes the dealer.
¶ End of Game
After the desired number of rounds have been played, the player with the highest total score at the end of all the rounds is the winner of the game.
¶ Yaku
Points from multiple yaku stack; players get points for each yaku they make!
| Value | Name of Yaku | Composition |
|---|---|---|
¶ Animal Yaku |
||
| 30 | Boar, Deer, Butterflies 猪鹿蝶 [いのしかちょう, inoshikachou] |
   |
¶ Ribbon Yaku |
||
| 20 | Red Ribbons (Writing) 赤短 (文字) [あかたん もじ, akatan (moji)] |
The three Poetry Ribbons:   |
| 20 | Blue Ribbons 青短 [あおたん, aotan] |
The three Blue Ribbons:   |
| 20 | Red Ribbons (Plain) 赤短 (無地) [あかたん むじ, akatan (muji)] |
The four Plain Ribbons:    |
¶ Viewing Yaku |
||
| 10 | Flower Viewing 花見で一杯 [はなみでいっぱい, hanami de ippai] |
  |
| 10 | Moon Viewing 月見で一杯 [つきみでいっぱい, tsukimi de ippai] |
 |
¶ Four-of-a-Kind Yaku |
||
| 10 | Full Wisteria 藤いっぱい [ふじいっぱい, fuji ippai] |
   |
| 10 | Full Paulownia 桐いっぱい [きりいっぱい, kiri ippai] |
    |
¶ External Resources
📺 “子供向け花札ルール「花合わせ」いのしかちょう（猪・鹿・蝶）で遊んでみた”, YouTube tutorial by くだらない動画 (in Japanese, linked on the original rules page)
¶ Bibliography
- Original rules webpage: https://dsstation.sakura.ne.jp/report/hanafuda/index.html