Ino-Shika-Chō - 猪鹿蝶 [いのしかちょう, lit. “boar-deer-butterfly”] is a basic 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 described here is a Hana-Awase variant, designed to be played by children:
- 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, and not designed for gambling.
- The wild card rule from Mushi was implemented to make the game more exciting.
¶ Setup
Game setup involves choosing a dealer [親 - おや, oya], shuffling the deck, and distributing the initial cards. Like many hanafuda games, a decision must also be made as to how many rounds to play - 12 rounds is traditional, though 6 and 3 are options for shorter games. Any other house rules should also be established at this point in order to keep gameplay smooth and fair.
¶ Choosing the Dealer
No method is stipulated for choosing the dealer.
The website recommends playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to determine who will be the dealer.
¶ 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.
¶ 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.
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
In each round, the dealer is the first to play, and turn to play passes anti-clockwise* around the table. 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.
The website actually mentions that the turn passes clockwise, but this is not stipulated.
¶ 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 except another Willow.
The rules for using the wild card are identical to the rules in Mushi, albeit with one minor difference.
There are 4 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 non-Willow card on the field. If there are no non-Willow cards on the field, then it is discarded onto the field, to be captured later.
-
If it is discarded on the field, it must be captured by the first non-Willow card drawn from the deck.
-
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 4, the process is done as follows:
- The dealer, before playing his/her turn, must take the top card of the draw pile (without looking at it) and place it face down on top of the Lightning card.
- The dealer then plays a card from his/her hand.
- Afterward, instead of drawing a card from the draw pile, the dealer must draw the card on top of the Lightning card. It and the Lightning card go to the dealer’s capture area.
In Case 4, it doesn’t matter if the drawn card is a non-Willow card or a Willow card; it always captures the
¶ End of Round
The round ends when all players run out of cards in their hand and when 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 during Case 4, the drawn card is a Willow card, which captures the
At this point, both players tally their scores for the round, as described below. The player with the highest score becomes the dealer for the next round.
¶ 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 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 | Poetry Ribbons 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 | Plain Ribbons 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, fujishima] |
   |
| 10 | Full Paulownia 桐いっぱい [きりいっぱい, kirishima] |
    This yaku is missing in the version of the game from the IndianWolf book. |
¶ 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).