What are Hanafuda?

 

Hanafuda are playing cards of Japanese origin used to play a number of games such as 'Koi-Koi', 'Hachi Hachi', 'Go-Stop' and 'Sakura'.  Hanafuda literally means 'flower cards'.  These cards were developed after 'western' playing cards were introduced some 350 years ago by European traders. Hana in Japanese can also mean 'nose'. So, Hanafuda can be read as 'flower cards' or 'nose-cards'. When Hanafuda cards were banned by the government, a person might go into a shop that sold the cards under the table and tap his nose to indicate he wanted to buy some cards. As a result, the tengu, or long nose goblin, is a popular mascot for Hanafuda cards.

Card games were played in Japan by the nobility but were not commonly played by the lower classes nor used for gambling. This changed in 1549 when the 18th year of Tenbun, a missionary Francis Xavier landed in the country. The crew of his ship had carried a set of 48 Portuguese Hombre playing cards from Europe and eventually card games became popular with people, along with their use for gambling. When Japan subsequently closed off all contact with the Western world in 1633, foreign playing cards were banned.

 

Despite prohibition, gambling with cards remained highly popular. Private gambling during the Tokugawa Shogunate was illegal but because playing card games per se was not banned, new cards were created with different designs to avoid the restriction. For example, an anonymous game player designed a card game known as Unsun Karuta. These cards were decorated with Chinese art, each depicting Chinese warriors, weaponry, armour and dragons. This deck consisted of 75 cards but was not as popular as the Western card games had been simply because of the difficulty of becoming familiar with the system. Each time gambling with a card deck of a particular design became too popular, the government banned those cards, which then prompted the creation of new ones. This cat and mouse game between the government and rebellious gamblers resulted in the creation of many differing designs.

Through the rest of the Edo era through the Meiwa, Anei, and Tenmei eras (roughly 1765–1788), a game called Mekuri Karuta took the place of Unsun Karuta. Consisting of a 48-card deck divided into four sets of 12, it became wildly popular and was one of the most common forms of gambling during this time period. In fact, it became so commonly used for gambling that it was banned in 1791, during the Kansei Era.

Over the next few decades, several new card games were developed and subsequently banned because they were used almost exclusively for gambling purposes. However, the government began to realise that some form of card games would always be played by the populace, and began to relax their laws against gambling. The eventual result of all this was a game called Hanafuda, which combined traditional Japanese games with Western-style playing cards. Because hanafuda cards do not have numbers (the main purpose is to associate images) and the long length to complete a game, it has a partially limited use for gambling. However, it is still possible to gamble by assigning points for completed image combinations. By this point card games were not nearly as popular as they had been due to past governmental repression. 

In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai for the purposes of producing and selling hand-crafted Hanafuda cards painted on mulberry tree bark. Though it took a while to catch on, the Yakuza began using Hanafuda cards in their gambling parlours and card games became popular in Japan again.

Hanafuda consist of 48 cards which are divided into 12 different suits which represent the months of the year.  Each suit contains four cards and have a flower or blossom or other type of fauna associated with them. There are four different types of cards, these are 'Junk', 'Animals', 'Ribbons' and 'Brights'.

Card numbers:

Junk      24

Animals   9

Ribbons 10

Brights    5

In Korea where these cards are called 'Hwatu' (which as a subject will form another blog in the near future), many decks include extra cards such as bonus cards and jokers which are used in a variety of different ways.

Hanafuda games are commonly played in the state of Hawaii in the United States and in Korea, though under different names. In Hawaii, there is 'Hawaiian-style Koi-Koi' which is called 'Sakura', 'Higobana' and sometimes 'Hanafura'. In Korea, where the cards are called Hwatu, the name literally translates as 'battle of flowers'. One of the most common Hwatu games is Go-stop or Sutda.  

Hwatu is very commonly played in Korea during special holidays such as the Lunar New Years, and also during the Korean holiday of Chuseok. Playing Go-stop at holiday family gatherings has been a Korean tradition for many years. The Korean version is usually played with three players, with two-person variants. Hanafuda is also played in Micronesia, where it is known under the same name, and is a four-person game, which is often paired cross-table.