The History & Art of Hanafuda

#An aside about Uta-awase

Out of all the types of competition, the most esteemed was to eventually be the poetry match (歌合わせ uta-awase). At first it was a competition like the others, where the poem was treated as an object to be chosen and presented by the competitor, the poet might not even be present, and more attention was paid to the accompanying costumes and music than the quality of the poetry.^{B[p. 242]}

The poetry competition was highly ritualized, where the result of a contest was not only about who could compose the better poem; on average, authors of a higher rank were more likely to win. In some cases, the winner of a round was decided by convention, and furthermore, some poems could not lose. The first poem presented by the Left team, a poem complimenting the host, or a poem by the Emperor himself would at worst result in a draw.^{G[p. 102]} At one competition Emperor Uda (宇多天皇) awarded his own poem a draw, stating “how can an imperial poem lose?”^{B[p. 244]}

Later, during what Ito Setsuko terms the “silver age” of uta-awase,^{F[p. 207]} the work of the poet became more important, and poetry competitions were held without the extravagant suhama. The competitions became more austere and aware of the world outside the courtly realm; in 1083 a planned grand competition was cancelled as it was thought to be inappropriate given the unrest at the time.i.e., the Genpei war. Smaller and more intimate competitions were held with poetry as their focus. This doesn’t mean that the proceedings were any less elaborate; the largest competition of this type involved nine poets competing over 1500 rounds.

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#Kai-awase to Kai-ōi

The earliest recorded kai-awase (貝合せ, ‘shell competition’) contest dates from 1040, and was held at the Ise shrine by Emperor Go-Suzaku’s first daughter, Princess Nagako. This was a competition very much in the spirit of the other mono-awase games, and consisted of twenty rounds, each shell being presented with an accompanying poem.^{H[p. 269]}

Kai-awase developed from this early comparing-competition form into a completely different style of game called kai-ōi (貝覆い, ‘shell covering’) that was based upon collecting matching pairs of shells. Kai-awase itself died out and there is no record of any competitions taking place after the Heian period.^{H[p. 270]} However, by the Edo period, the two terms would be conflated, with kai-awase being used for the matching game as well,^{IH[p. 270]} and today kai-awase is the term most commonly used for replica game sets.

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Unlike kai-awase, the new game was exclusively played with clam (蛤) shells, and it offered definitive terms for deciding the winner. In one method of play, the left-hand sides of the shells — also termed the “male” (陽 yō = yang) or ‘ground’ (地) shells — were arranged face-down on the ground. The right-hand sides — the “female” (陰 in = yin) or ‘coming out’ (出) shells — were then drawn from their kai-oke (貝桶, ‘shell bucket’) one-by-one and the players would attempt to match them with those on the floor.^{D[p. 92]} Whoever was the first to point out a (successful) match would capture both halves of the shell, and the winner was the player who collected the most shells.

Early instructional books for women from the Muromachi period (1392–1573) include rules that state that the game is played with twelve shells,A video showing how this game would have been played can be seen here. which should be arranged in a circle on the ground, and that the drawn shell should be placed in the centre, with the pointed end (“head”) directed towards the highest-ranking person in the room.^{H[p. 270]} Evidently the game could get physical, as those same books warn that “to quarrel and remove shells by force is something that only men and courtesans do.”

The monk Kenkō (兼好, d. c. 1352) also offered guidance in his book Essays in Idleness, published around 1330:^{J[p. 130]} Kenkō goes on to apply this strategic advice as part of an extended metaphor for good governance and living well: “In all things, do not seek for distant advantage. Simply maintain correctly what is close to hand. In the words of the Chinese sage Duke Xiao of Qing, ‘Do what is good, and ask no questions of the future.’ Surely a ruler should also govern in this way.”

If someone engaged in a game of shell matching neglects the shells in front of him while he looks around to check what others might be hiding in their sleeves or by their knees, his own shells will be snatched from in front of him. Those who are good at the game seem not to go to the length of taking shells from distant players but limit themselves to those close at hand, yet they manage to acquire a large number.

While later depictions (such as the images above) usually represent the game as only played by women, diary entries and paintings from the time show that the game was originally played by everyone, often in mixed teams. Losing teams would also request re-matches to try to beat the victorious team.^{H[p. 257]}

Records of the imperial household indicate that the shell-matching game was played formally nearly five hundred times over the period 1481–1589, sometimes as many as nine times a month.^{H[p. 257]}

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When played with many shells, the game must have been difficult, since the clues that point to a match are solely the subtle shades and contours of the shell, and the only way to test if shells truly match is to pick them up and attempt to join them together. In fact, white shells with few markings were specifically selected to make the game as difficult as possible.^{K[p. 11]} Considering that traditional sets could contain up to 360 shells,Modern replicas usually only have around 54, but an elaborate set produced between 2013–2015 by forty-six artisans in Wajima contains 720 shells featuring Australian wild flowers.^{K[p. 4]} this was a game for a class of person who had a lot of leisure time on their hands.

Later the game set itself turned into a luxury item: the interior of the shells was at first decorated with matching fabrics, and then elaborately painted or even gilded. These matching images were used to confirm a correct match after both shells were selected. After the Kamakura period (1333), it became common to illustrate the shells with matching scenes from the Tale of Genji (源氏物語 Genji Monogatari) — the game is also played in Chapter 45 of the novel itself. Other designs included shells with half of a poem in each, so that the matching pair could be read as a complete poem; these types of the game would eventually evolve into the uta-garuta (歌骨牌) poetry cards.

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During the 17th century, a personal kai-ōi set became a standard component of a noble bride’s wedding gifts, as the joining of the matching shells was symbolic of the join­ing of husband and wife in marriage. However, the elaborate sets with their hand-painted and gilded interiors must have been ex­pen­sive to create and only owned by the richest of families. Indeed, at times restrictions were put in place so that only noble families of the upper ranks were permitted to include the game in their bridal trousseaux.^{H[p. 265]} When the time came to hand over the wedding gifts, it was customary for the kai-oke to be the first item presented,^{H[p. 265]} and they were eventually to become the most important of all the gifts given to the bride.^{K[p. 11]} This custom eventually died out as samurai culture was ended during the late 19th century.^{K[p. 11]}

In this role, miniature kai-oke can be found in hina-matsuri col­lections, and these are still produced for this purpose today.

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#Hana-awase

Hanafuda seem to originate in a combination of the themes of kai-awase — matching sets, poetry, conventionalized art — with the ideas introduced by the Portuguese playing cards — a regular structure of suits divided into different ranks.

The two distinct schools of playing-card games first combined in the form of hana-awase (花合せ) decks. These early 18th century ancestors of Hanafuda (such as the deck pictured below) show a very regular configuration of cards for each flower, which evolved during the 18th and 19th centuries into the unusual configuration of the Hanafuda deck.

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While decks such as the above are obviously for a different style of game, most of the imagery that would become part of the hanafuda deck was already present.

At the moment it is unclear exactly how the Hanafuda deck was developed from the hana-awase cards.I hope to expand on this in future! It seems that at some point an enterprising manufacturer began to produce a stripped-down version that Japanese Hanafuda scholar Ebashi Takashi (江橋崇) calls the Musashino (武蔵野) deck.

#Banning & Legalization

Sometime after their introduction, Hanafuda games were restricted as part of a total ban on gambling introduced during the Kansei ReformsDuring the Kansei Reforms, gambling was prohibited by the 博奕賭ノ勝負禁止ノ儀ニ付触書, promulgated by Matsudaira Sadanobu on the 12th of January, 1788.^{L[p. 44]} (1787–1793). This ban was to remain in place for nearly 200 years until, in 1886, a bookstore owner in Ōsaka named Maeda Kihei (前田喜兵衛) decided to open a store selling Hanafuda.

Things had already begun to change in 1885, after a ban on Western playing cards (西洋かるた seiyō karuta) was lifted due to complaints from foreign officials.^{M[pp. 189–192]} Maeda KiheiKihei appears to have been something of a rogue: he is somewhat infamous in the philately community for selling collections of counterfeit stamps to unsuspecting tourists. became convinced through his reading of legal texts that the selling of Hanafuda was not actually prohibited, and he moved to Tōkyō in December 1885 with a plan to open a Hana­fuda shop. However, he found that the local landlords refused to let to him, believing his business illegal, and he was unable to convince news­papers to print his advertisements. In order to prove himself correct, he came up with a cunning plan: he officially petitioned the Tōkyō police to ban the sale of Hana­fuda. His petition was declined, the police stating that the sale of Hana­fuda was legal, and later that month he opened his first shop in the Yagenbori neighbourhood of Chūō district in Tōkyō (中央区薬研堀町, now part of Higashi–Nihonbashi). The shop was named “Kamigataya” (上方屋, ‘Kyōto region store’).^{M[pp. 189–192]N}

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Kamigataya was thus the first store to openly sell Hanafuda. A month later, Maeda opened a second branch of Kamigataya in Muromachi district (室町), and this was quickly followed by a third store in Ginza (銀座) in March. To promote the opening of the Ginza store, Maeda also staged a Hanafuda-themed play in March 1886, which was held at the Chitose theatre (now called the Meiji-za).

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In addition to the retail stores, a specialized wholesale store was opened in the Ningyōchō street in the Sumi­yoshi neigh­bour­hood,Sumiyoshi-chō was an Edo-period red light district and the birthplace of the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza organization.^O The area was destroyed along with most of the rest of Nihonbashi in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923; the location where Sumiyoshi-chō existed is now part of Nihon-bashi Ningyō-chō 2–chōme (人形町二丁目). in Tōkyō’s Nihonbashi district (日本橋住吉町人形町通り). Maeda later also started other stores with names that punned on the original store, such as Nakagataya (中方屋) and Shimogataya (下方屋).^N

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Once the viability of Hanafuda had been pro­ven, other manufacturers appeared quickly: the com­pany that was later to become Nin­tendo began producing Hanafuda cards in 1889. Other companies such as Ōishi Tengudō claim to have been operating discreetly during the pro­hi­bition period; in their case behind the doors of a rice merchant named Minatoya (湊屋).^P

#Changing Attitudes

Even after prohibition had ended, Hanafuda retained a poor reputation, and gambling with the cards remained illegal. In 1892, Korekata Kojima (児島惟謙, 1837–1908), who was the head of Japan’s supreme court (大審院 daishinin), was accused along with five other supreme court judges of gambling with Hanafuda (弄花, rōka). Due to a lack of evidence, the case was dropped, but Kojima accepted ‘moral responsibility’ for the scandal and resigned his position.^{Q[p. 813]}

Despite this “image problem”, playing Hanafuda became part of what it meant to be a shinshi (紳士) — that is, a modern, worldly gentleman.The Japanese word shinshi had originally been coined to translate the English “gentleman”,^{R[p. 32–8]} and was particularly associated with those who enthusiastically embraced Westernization during the Meiji period. The author Uchida Roan (1868–1929) is said to have joked:

紳士の資格は？　弄花と蓄妾と負債と奔走。

What are the qualifications of a shinshi? Gambling with Hanafuda, keeping a mistress, being in debt, and running about.

Another commentator remarked ironically that “if you can’t play skillfully with 48 flower cards, you can’t be a sōninkan [奏任官, a type of official appointed by the prime minister]”.

The author and politician Suematsu Kenchō (末松 謙澄) described the attitude at the time in his 1905 English-language book ⁨A Fantasy of Far Japan: Or, Summer Dream Dialogues⁩ (p. 176):

In times gone by no game of cards having any resemblance to gambling was played among the gentry; moral discipline forbade such. Since the introduction of European ideas, the rigidity of discipline has somewhat slackened and cards are now played to some extent. Nevertheless, people do not consider card-playing good taste. If they play they do so with some diffidence, somewhat in a similar way as smoking is done by ladies in European society nowadays.

However, despite his protestation in the book that “I do not care for playing at cards, but I know the methods”, he goes on to give a detailed account of the gameplay — far more than a casual observer would know!

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Another popularizing force during this period was that of cigarette manufacturers who began to include Hanafuda-patterned cards in cigarette packages as collectible items. The manufacturer Murai Brothers (村井兄弟商會, founded by the “tobacco king” Murai Kichibei (村井吉兵衛) in Kyōto in 1892) included tobacco cards which combined Hanafuda with Western playing cards. Murai was a progressive company that enthusiastically embraced Westernization across the whole of its business. They operated in conjunction with Western tobacco companies such as the British-American Tobacco Company, and many of their cigarette brands bore English titles. Where his competitor Iwaya would name a brand 日乃出 (hinode “sunrise”), Murai used the English name “Sunshine”.

In 1899, Murai formed the subsidiary “Tōyō Printing”In some sources this is given in its translated form as the “Oriental Printing Company”. (東洋印刷), and acquired printing equipment and training from the United States. With this equipment, they were able to produce high-quality packaging, and there is some suggestion that they worked with Nintendō to produce the first Western-style playing cards produced in Japan (1902).^U Certainly, Nintendō’s early cards are often imitations of those produced by such US companies as the National Card Company which had been merged with the United States Playing-card Company in 1894.^V

In 1904, the Japanese government nationalizedKichibei was compensated massively for being pushed out of the industry and later founded a bank, among many other enterprises.^{W[p. 632]} the manufacture of all tobacco products, and the Tōyō Printing subsidiary was taken over by British-American Tobacco.^{X[p. 362]}

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#Taxation, Decline, and Revival

In 1902 a stamp duty was introduced that was inspired by similar taxes imposed in Western countries, the intent being to raise the cost of cards (and thereby dis­cour­age their use) but also to increase tax revenue. The tax imposed was crushing: 20 sen per set,The sen (銭) was a unit of currency representing 1⁄100 of a yen. in a time when cheap Hanafuda decks could be had for as little as 2–3 sen. The effect on card manufacturers was “dire”, as Rebecca Salter puts it.^{Z[p. 186]} Ebashi states that the law led to the closure of many small producers, and made it much harder for new manufacturers to enter the industry; both due to the tax itself as well as onerous record-keeping and inspection requirements.^AA

During this period, Nintendō managed to survive in part by taking up the manufacture of regional patterns of Japanese cards (地方札 chihōfuda), whose original, small-time, manufacturers had failed due to the new taxation law.^AB

By the mid to late 20th century, interest in the game was waning. A poll by Japan’s Cabinet Office in 1956 indicated that only 9% of people played Hanafuda, compared with 28% who played with Western playing cards.^AC

Starting in the late 20th century, Hanafuda seems to have had something of a revival. “Character” decks featuring popular anime and manga characters began to be produced, and the popularity of Hanafuda has also been boosted by films featuring the cards, such as Summer Wars (2009).

While Japan produces many new types of Hanafuda cards, in Korea Hwatu games appear to be much more popular than their Japanese counterparts, and several films about gambling with Hwatu — most prominently the Tazza series (2006, 2014, 2019) — have been box-office successes.

Image search results on Instagram (as of writing in 2021) for the hashtags #花札 and #화투 show about twice as many Korean-tagged images, despite Korea having only a third of the number of Instagram users that Japan has.^ADAE The content of the images also gives many clues to the game’s popularity: Korean images often show games in progress, and many times being played for money, whereas Japanese images are often just of the cards themselves, focusing on their æsthetic value.

#Standard (Hachihachi-bana)

The standard pattern is now one that is called hachihachi-bana (八八花/八々花), since it was primarily used to play the game 八八 ‘88’. Almost all decks use this pattern, and images from it are used to show the cards of each month below.

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#Korean deck differences

Korean decks are also based on the hachi­hachi­-bana pattern, but the ribbons are usually blue instead of purple, and there is Korean text on the standard three red ribbons (labelled 홍단, hongdan ‘crimson ribbon’) and all three blue ribbons (청단, cheongdan ‘blue ribbon’).

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There are also differences in the ‘rain man’ (see below), and depending on the deck, other aspects of the cards can also be translated into Korean cultural terms. For example, the lesser cuckoo of the Japanese cards is in some decks the Oriental magpie, which is the national bird of Korea.

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#Mushi-bana

The Mushi-bana (虫花 ‘insect flowers’) deck is a variant that contains only ten months, as it lacks the sixth (peony) and seventh (bush clover). It is especially used for playing the game of the same name, Mushi (‘insects’). It is sometimes described as a shortened version of a standard Hachihachi deck, but in reality, it originated as a distinct regional pattern.

Nintendō produced this pattern until recently, but it now appears to be extinct.

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#Echigo-bana

The regional Echigo-bana (越後花 ‘Echigo flowers’) pattern is based on designs that are older than the standard pattern. The most obvious difference is that all the cards are overpainted with gold and silver in various patterns.

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Some of the kasu cards also carry short poems (短歌 tanka). Poetry is a common sight on traditional Japanese art — as seen on the kachō-ga prints above — and often provides more context to the images. The poems of the Echigo-bana will be examined in more detail below.

#Echigo-kobana

The Echigo-kobana (越後小花 ‘Echigo small flowers’) pattern is similar to the Echigo-bana, but with very small cards measuring approximately 3 cm × 4.5 cm (1⅛″ × 1¾″).

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Because of the small size, there are no poems on this deck. However, it does contain four extra cards. Any special rules for the deck, including the use of these extra cards, are unknown — Ōishi Tengudō even includes a note with every deck sold asking for anyone who knows the rules to contact them!

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#Awa-­bana/Kintoki­-bana

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This is another regional pattern called Awa­-bana (阿波花) or Kintoki­-bana (金時花). It originated in Awa province, in what is now Tokushima prefecture.

Like the Echigo-bana pattern, some of the Awa-­bana carry poems (in fact, they carry the same poems). The deck also contains an extra card which features the titular Kintoki (金時 ), a legendary strong-boy also known as Kintarō.

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#Dairen-bana

Dairen-bana (大連花) is an extinct regional pattern from the city of Dalian (大连市) in China. It dates from the era of the Kwangtung Leased Territory, when Japan occupied the region from 1905 until the end of WWII. The pattern possibly existed as a way to reduce government taxation on cards, as cards sold in occupied regions did not attract the same level of tax as those sold within Japan’s own islands.

The main distinguishing feature of the pattern is that each type of tanzaku card has a unique background pattern (as opposed to the usual ‘confetti’). The remainder of the cards follow the standard pattern very closely.

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#Modern/Novelty decks

In addition to the above, there are also many modern revisions or novelty decks that do not conform to any one of the traditional patterns. More information and examples of these can be found in the article about new Hanafuda manufacturers.

#1月

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The first month is represented by pine trees (松 matsu). The bright card shows a crane and pine trees, with the sun rising in the background. Both the crane and the pine are symbols of longevity, so they are a common combination in Japanese art; the mythical Mount Hōrai, a dwelling-place of immortals, is depicted as wooded with pine trees and populated by cranes.

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The pine is associated with winter and snow, so these cards show the lingering influence of winter during the new year. The first week of the new year is known as the ‘pine week’ (松の内 matsu no uchi), and the traditional festival that was held on the first Day of the Rat of the new year (子の日の宴 nenohi no en) involved uprooting small pine trees.^{A[p. 168]}

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The text on the tanzaku reads akayoroshi あ𛀙よろし.The writing on the tanzaku uses a rare hentaigana character for ka, which is usually written か. It may not render correctly on your device. This means ‘red is good’ and was an older name of a Hachi-Hachi yaku (scoring com­bin­ation) which is now called akatan.The meaning of this phrase is usually said to be “unclear”, even by Hanafuda manufacturers. Some derive a meaning like ‘clearly good’ based on reading aka as a short form of akiraka ni (‘clearly’). However, old listings of yaku show akayoroshi alongside aoyoroshi (‘blue is good’) indicating that aka should be read straightforwardly as 赤 (‘red’). Cards from vintage decks can carry older names for this yaku, such as urasu, or sometimes simply 正月/初月, indicating the first lunar month.

In the Echigo-bana pattern, the kasu cards carry a tanka composed by Mina­moto no Mune­yukiMina­moto no Mune­yuki (d. 983) was a poet of the Heian period, and named one of the ‘Thirty-Six Immortals of Poetry’. (源宗于) at a poetry competition organized by the Empress during the reign of Emperor Uda . It is featured as Poem 24 in the ‘Spring’ section of the Kokin Wakashū (古今和歌集 “Collection of Old and New Poems”):

The Awa-bana kasu carries a shortened reference to this poem, announcing that spring is here:

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#2月

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The second month is represented by plum trees in blossom (梅 ume). The tane has a bush warbler–plum blossom combination that has been associated with spring since very early times, dating at least from the Man’yōshū (万葉集 ‘Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves’, a book of poetry compiled during the Nara period sometime after 759).^{AF[loc. 978]}

Despite being a tree introduced from China, the plum blossom was the favoured flower in poetry and art during the Nara period; the native cherry blossom would only become more popular during the Heian period:^{AF[loc. 997]} after a famous plum tree that was planted by Emperor Kanmu at the imperial palace had died, Emperor Ninmyō replaced it with a cherry treeThis cherry tree has been replanted several times since then, and is called the sakon no sakura (左近桜 ‘left-side cherry’). in 834.^{AI[p. 301]}

The bush warbler (鶯 uguisu) was praised for its song, and one of its cries is said to repeat the phrase hō-hoke-kyō, the Japanese name of the Lotus Sutra (法華経 hokekyō). The first cry of the bush warbler was considered to announce the beginning of spring:

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The poem on the Echigo-bana kasu cards (the origin of which is unknown) also describes the call of the bush warbler. Note that while the poem must be describing white plum blossoms (白梅 hakubai), all Hanafuda patterns depict red plum blossoms (紅梅 kōbai), which became more popular later on:

#3月

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The third month is represented by cherry trees in bloom (桜 sakura). Blossom-viewing (花見 hanami), parti­cularly of cherry blossoms, is a custom that dates back to the Heian period. The curtains (幕 maku) that are shown on the bright card are there provide privacy whilst viewing cherry blossoms. An example of their use can be seen in the image on the left. It was common to use striped fabric, particularly in red & white, while nobility would use curtains bearing their family crest.

The tanzaku of the March cards reads mi­yoshino みよしの ‘beautiful Yoshino’,Some older cards spell this phrase differently, some examples are: みよし𛂙, 美よし𛂙, or みよし𛂜. Other phrases seen on the cherry tanzaku include す𛀙𛂦𛃰 (すがわら sugawara), or 宇良す (うらす urasu). Both of these are references to the Hachi-Hachi yaku ‘うらすがわら’ (urasugawara). which is a sobriquet for the mountainous area of Yoshino (吉野) in Nara prefecture, famous for its cherry blossoms. The term miyoshino is often used to refer to this location in the imperial poetry collections.

In 1688, Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉), Japan’s most famed composer of hokku, visited Yoshino during his travels but found himself unable to compose a single poem, overwhelmed by the pressure of trying to live up to his predecessors.^{AJ[p. 84]} One of them, Yasuhara Teishitsu (安原貞室), had composed what Bashō considered to be the “finest hokku ever written”:^{AK[p. 8]}

Look at that! and that!
Is all I can say of the blossoms
At Yoshino mountain.

Rather than hanami, some older non-standard designs depict a bugaku (舞楽) scene, with a large drum decorated with flames (火焔太鼓 kaendaiko).

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#4月

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The fourth month is represented by wisteria (藤 fuji). These cards are also nicknamed ‘black bean’ (黒豆 kuromame), due to their appearance. This month shows the tran­sition from spring to summer; the lesser cuckoo (ホトトギス hototogisu) is a bird of summer,^{AF[loc. 1065]} while wisteria is associated with the passage of spring into summer;^{AF[loc. 1021]} it is also known as the ‘two-season plant’ (二季草 niki­sou). Like the bush warbler and spring, the first cry of the cuckoo was considered to announce the beginning of summer. By the time of the Edo period, this was perhaps more of a poetic dream than reality; the poet Buson remarked that he had only heard the bird twice, despite living in Kyoto for 20 years.^{AK[p. 56]}

The cuckoo swooping in front of the moon is a common motif in Japanese art. It is tempting to claim that this may be a reference to the tale of Yorimasa from the Heike Monogatari,^{AL[pp. 161–3]} but the oldest decks do not have a moon on this card.

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The tanka on the kasu cards is similar to Poem 135 from the Summer section of the Kokinshū,The poem on the card differs slightly in that the last line starts with ima ya 今や instead of itu ka いつか.^{AG[p. 100]} perhaps written by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro 柿本 人麻呂. The poem again focuses on the transition from spring (represented by wisteria) to summer (represented by the arrival of the cuckoo):

In Korean contexts, the non-tane wisteria cards are almost always shown upside-down, so that the plants are presented in the same manner as the bush clover in the seventh month. The cards are also referred to as 흑싸리, “black bush clover”, possibly because wisteria is not native to Korea. The tane card is never shown inverted.

#5月

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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The fifth month is represented by iris (菖蒲 ayame); a nickname for the month is negi (葱, ‘scallion/leek’).^AN

The bridge shown on the tane card is a reference to the ‘eight bridges’ (八橋 yatsu­hashi) featured in an episode of the Tales of Ise ( 伊勢物語 Ise Monogatari), in which the unnamed protagonistTraditionally this is presumed to be the poet Ariwara no Narihira (在原 業平). of the story comes across a braided river that is crossed by overlapping planks forming a zig-zag bridge. Challenged to compose a poem on the subject “a traveller’s sentiments”, he recites the following:

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This poem, which appears in full on the kasu cards of the Echigo-bana pattern,^{AG[p. 100]} is in the form of an acrostic; the first letters of each line spell out kakitsuhata かきつはた, which is the name of the Japanese iris (杜若 kakitsubata).Note that at the time this poem was written, written Japanese did not distinguish between は ha and ば ba. Because of this scene, the iris and the planked bridge have a long association in Japan.

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#6月

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The sixth month is represented by the tree peony (牡丹 botan). The peony was a much later introduction to Japan than the plants shown on the other cards, being brought over from China in the 8th century.^{AP[p. 159]}

The flower was considered to be almost too bold for poetry, and those poems which do exist usually mention its striking colour, size, or Chinese origins.

#7月

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The seventh month is represented by bush clover (萩 hagi). These cards are also nicknamed ‘red bean’ (赤豆 akamame/小豆 azuki). Bush clover is very strongly associated with autumn — the Japanese character 萩 is a composition of 秋 ‘autumn’ and 艹 (full form 艸) ‘grass’.

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Bush clover is also (along with miscanthus, see the next month) considered one of the “seven flowers of autumn” (秋の七草), a term which derives from a pair of poems in the Man’yōshū (book 8:1537–8):^{AQ[p. 212]}

The bush clover is referred to in the Man’yōshū even more than the plum or cherry blossoms.^{AR[p. 54]}

On the other hand, the wild boar pictured on the tane card does not feature in any of the imperial poetry collections. As a representative of rural life, it was considered to be outside the boundaries of the aristocratic worldview of the poets. For the common people, however, the boar was very important as a source of food. When Emperor Tenmu banned the consumption of meat in 675, only cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys, and chickens were prohibited.^{AF[loc. 4261]} Wild game such as boar and deer were not included: either they escaped the imagination of the Emperor, or they were too important as food sources for commoners.

#8月

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The eighth month is represented by miscanthus or silvergrass (芒/薄 susuki). It can also be called tsuki (月, ‘moon’),^{AS[p. 194]} or oka (丘 ‘hill’).^{AT[p. 107]}

The bold moon card is possibly the most well-recognized of all hanafuda cards. It is the standard card chosen as a representative emoji: 🎴 On printed cards, the fields of grass are often simplified into solid black circles. Because of the resemblance of this to the head of a bald man, another nickname for this month is ‘baldy’ ( 坊主 bōzu), a slang term for a Buddhist monk.

Traditionally, the most important date of the year for moon viewing was the 15th day of the 8th month (中秋観月 chūshū kangetsu);^{A[p. 176]} the full moon always fell on the 15th due to the way the calendar was constructed.^{A[p. 170]}

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Fairbairn (1986) says that the poem on the Echigo-bana kasu cards is “untranslatable”, because it has been corrupted, but that it is based on poem 422 of the Shin Kokinshū:

The Awa-bana kasu carry a shortened version, with the two cards carrying mirror versions:

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#9月

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The ninth month is represented by chrysanthemum (菊 kiku). The tane card depicts a sake cup, which is an implement of chōyō 重陽, the chrysanthemum festival, which is held on the 9th day of the 9th month. Because chrysanthemum blooms for a long time, it had become a symbol of long life in China, and the festival was introduced into Japan by the court of Emperor Kanmu (桓武天皇, 735–806).^{AF[loc. 1214]}

During the festival, chrysanthemum petals are added to sake and consumed. The sake cup (杯 sakazuki) pictured on the card has the character 壽/寿 (kotobuki), meaning ‘long life’, written on it in a cursive script.

A poem by Bashō commemorates the evening of the 9th day of the 9th month, in 1691. He was staying at the temple Gichu-ji (義仲寺) in a hermitage known as ‘name­less hut’ (無名庵 Mumyō-an), when his disciple Kawai Otokuni (河合乙州) came to visit him with a gift:

草の戸や日暮てくれし菊の酒

this grass door—
dusk arrives with a present
of chrysanthemum sake^AW

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Chrysanthemums were also prized for their secular beauty, and collectors competed to breed particularly beautiful varieties.

The chrysanthemum is also used as a symbol by the Emperor of Japan. It was first adopted by Emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183–1198), but was not restricted to this purpose until the Meiji period. In modern times a stylized version of the chrysanthemum flower is used as the Chrysanthemum Seal (菊紋 kikumon), which is the crest of the Emperor of Japan (who uses a 16-petal version) and other members of the imperial family (who use a 14-petal version).

#10月

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The tenth month is represented by autumn leaves/maple (紅葉 momiji/kōyō). The tane card features a deer who is looking back over its shoulder, sometimes inspecting a twig. A reference to this card, the ‘10-point deer’ (鹿十 shikato) has thus become a slang term shikato (しかと) meaning to ignore or neglect.

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While the leaves on the tane card are attached to a tree, the leaves on the other cards appear to be floating on water. This could be a reference to the Tatsuta river (竜田川), which was as famous for autumn foliage as Yoshino was for cherry blossoms in the spring.^{AF[loc. 1756]} A anonymous poem from the Kokinshū (V: 283) celebrates the leaves floating on its surface:

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The poem on the Echigo-bana kasu cards is Poem 437 from the ‘Autumn 2’ section of the Shin Kokinshū. It was composed by Fujiwara no Ietaka (藤原家隆, 1158–1237), upon the finalization of the poetry collection:^{AY[p. 318]}

#11月

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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The eleventh month is represented by willow (柳 yanagi); it is also often referred to as ‘rain’ (雨 ame) or ‘drizzle’ ( 時雨 shigure).

These cards have a strange relationship with the other cards — in many games they have special powers, or they are valued lower than the cards of other months. For ex­ample, the bright of November will often score less than the other four brights, and in some games the “lightning card” has special powers, such as being able to match any other card.

The man pictured on the bright card is the poet Ono no Michikaze (小野道風), who is considered to be one of the founders of Japanese calligraphy. The jumping frog re­calls an episode in his life: he had failed seven times to achieve a promotion and was considering abandoning his attempts. One day, walking beside a stream, he saw a frog attempting to jump onto a willow branch. Seven times it jumped, and seven times it failed. On the eighth attempt, the frog reached the branch successfully. Michikaze was thus inspired to persevere with his attempts.^{BB[pp. 86–7]}

On older decks, a different “rain man” is pictured. On these cards, the man is running in the rain with the umbrella closed around his head. This feature is preserved in the Echigo-bana pattern.

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On the Echigo-kobana’s “rain man” card, the figure has a bushy tail and appears to be either a kitsune, a Japanese fox/spirit; or a tanuki, the raccoon-dog. I am not sure of the significance of this.

The “lightning card” mentioned above is the red-coloured kasu card, which is usually called the ogre card in Japanese (鬼札 onifuda). The drums, which are visible in some patterns, are an attribute of the thunder god Raijin (雷神).

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In some older decks, the lightning card depicts a scene derived from Ōtsu-e prints (大津絵), where Raijin is attempting to ‘fish’ back a drum that he has dropped. Remnants of this design can be seen in many decks of the standard pattern.

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© JPCM, used with permission

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#12月

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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© 2021 Louie Mantia 🅭🅯🄎

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The twelfth month is represented by paulownia (桐 kiri). This is a tree that flowers in spring, and has large heart-shaped leaves.

The paulownia as a symbol was originally used by the imperial family and ranked second only to the chrysanthemum. Permission to use the paulownia was granted by Emperor Go-Daigo to Ashikaga Takauji, whose descendants used it until the end of the Ashikaga shogunate in 1573. After this, Emperor Go-Yōzei granted use of the crest to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598), the second of the three “Great Unifiers” of Japan, and today it is most strongly associated with the Toyotomi family. However, as Toyotomi in turn allowed its use by so many of his allies, it is also now the most common crest in Japan.

In modern times, the paulownia symbol is also associated with the government. This use started after the Meiji restoration, and it appears on the seal of the prime minister’s office. There are many versions of the crest, with the 3–5–3 flower version being the most common. The 5-7–5 version is of higher standing and is the one used by the government.

The wood of the paulownia is light and strong and often used for boxes; it is very fast-growing and also somewhat fire-proof, so was useful as a storage material. Older high-quality Hanafuda decks came encased in an outer box of paulownia wood. The manufacturer Ōishi Tengudo still boxes many of their decks in this way.

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The phoenix (鳳凰 hōō, or fèng­huáng in Mandarin Chinese) featured on the bright card is from Japanese mythology, and was traditionally associated with the empress of Japan. According to legend, the phoenix will only land on a paulownia tree. What appear to be ‘spikes’ on the card are really its long tail feathers. This card is sometimes casually referred to as the “rooster” card.

One of the kasu cards is usually coloured, often yellow, but sometimes with red as well. In some games it becomes a tane card, or even a tanzaku card.

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© George Pollard 🅭🅯🄏🄎

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Usually (in Japanese decks) the manufacturer’s mark is on the coloured kasu card, much like the ace of spades is used in European decks. In Korean decks, the mark can also be on the full moon card or the jokers.