Taipa Shijō-shugi Hanafuda (タイパ至上主義花札), or Taipa Hanafuda for short, is a fast-paced modern take on Koi-Koi developed and sold by the company Taipa Shijō-shugi. The game’s name literally means “Time-performance supremacism hanafuda,” or more freely translated, “hanafuda that prioritizes efficient use of time above all.”
The game is for 2 players, and it uses a custom deck with only 6 suits and many duplicate cards. It has a koi-koi mechanic, only 4 yaku, and a unique rule where completed yaku are removed from play at the end of each round. A full game takes about 5 minutes.
¶ The deck
Taipa Hanafuda uses a custom deck, which you are meant to buy specifically for this game.
The individual cards are essentially the same as in traditional hanafuda, so the game is technically possible to play with standard hanafuda cards, but you would need to combine 4 standard decks and remove 75% of the cards.
The Taipa Hanafuda deck uses only 6 suits (out of the standard 12), and each suit has 8 cards (instead of 4), for a total of 48 cards. In most cases, each suit has 4 (identical) bright or animal cards, 2 ribbon cards, and 2 chaff cards. The susuki grass suit has 4 chaffs instead of 2 and no ribbons.
| Suit | Brights | Animals | Ribbons | Chaff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pine |  |
- |  |
 |
| Cherry Blossom |  |
- |  |
 |
| Susuki Grass |  |
- | - |  |
| Bush Clover | - |  |
 |
 |
| Maple | - |  |
 |
 |
| Peony | - |  |
 |
 |
The box also comes with koban coin cards, which act as chips. There are 10 silver coins worth 1 point each and 2 gold coins worth 5 points each.
¶ Setup
- Distribute the koban coins evenly. (Each player starts with five 1-point coins and one 5-point coin, for a total of 10 points.)
- Shuffle the deck.
- Give each player 6 cards face-down for in their hand, and place 6 cards face-up between the players. The remaining cards are placed face-down as a draw pile.
- Play rock-paper-scissors to determine who plays first in the first round.
¶ Gameplay
¶ 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 multiple cards on the table, then the player may choose which one they capture.
- 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.
¶ Checking for Yaku
After playing both their cards - one from their hand, and one from the draw pile - the player checks their score pile for yaku [役 - やく], or scoring combinations; a list of these is given further down the page.
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If the player has formed a new yaku, then they have the choice to either end the round by calling agari/finish, or to continue in pursuit of a higher score by calling koi-koi.
-
If they have not, then their turn simply ends, and turn to play passes to the opponent.
¶ Calling “Koi-Koi”
If the player declares koi-koi, then the round continues. Their turn ends, and turn to play passes to the opponent. This is a calculated risk; continuing the round allows the opportunity to capture more yaku, but forfeits all points should the opponent win first.
Calling koi-koi for the first time doubles your score. Each player may call koi-koi as many times as they desire during the round, but only the first koi-koi has an effect on scoring.
¶ Calling “Agari”
If the player declares “agari” or “finish”, then the round immediately ends, and scores are calculated. This is a safe bet, which allows the player to immediately cash in on their yaku.
¶ End of Round and Scoring
The round ends when either a player calls agari/finish, or when both players run out of cards in their hands.
¶ Exhaustive Draw
If both players run out of cards in hand without calling agari, the round ends in an exhaustive draw, and neither player earns any points. Note that captured yaku are not scored for; if a player called koi-koi but did not complete another yaku and call agari before the cards ran out, then their points are forfeited.
The round is considered over, and the next round begins.
¶ Scoring for Yaku
Otherwise, the player who called agari calculates the total point value of all the yaku in their score pile. This total is their base score. If the player who called agari has called koi-koi at any previous point during the round, then their score is doubled. (Calling koi-koi multiple times does not earn a higher multiplier.)
Note that only the player who called agari earns any points. Their opponent scores nothing for this round.
¶ Ending the round and starting the next round
At the end of the round, any winner receives coin cards from the other player worth the same amount as their score.
Then finished yaku are removed from play. Both players put all yaku they finished this round face-up to the side of the playing area. All other cards are gathered and shuffled, and cards are distributed the same as before.
The player with the lowest score gets to play first in the next round.
The online sources listed below do not mention what happens when the players’ scores are tied at the end of a round.
¶ End of Game
The game ends after three rounds, or when a player lost all of their points. The player with the greater score is declared the winner.
¶ Yaku
This game has only four simple yaku, one for each card rank. Each yaku requires 3 cards. The same yaku can be earned multiple times, and each individual card can only be used in one yaku.
| Points | Yaku Name | Composition |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Three Brights 三光 [さんこう, sankō] |
One each of the three bright cards: |
| 2 | Boar-Deer-Butterflies 猪鹿蝶 [いのしかちょう, inoshikachō] |
One each of the three animal cards: |
| 1 | Ribbons タン [たん, tan] |
Any 3 Ribbon cards. |
| 0 | Chaff カス [かす, kasu] |
Any 3 Chaff cards. |
The Chaff yaku does not earn any base points, but completing it does give the player the opportunity to call koi-koi (which may double the total score) or end the round.
¶ Bibliography
- Official website (in Japanese)
- Taipa Hanafuda rules overview in English (the same in Japanese)
- タイパ至上主義花札紹介, a blog post in Japanese explaining the game