Karuta
Encyclopedia
is a Japan
ese card game
.
The basic idea of any karuta game is to be able to quickly determine which card out of an array of cards is required and then to grab the card before it is grabbed by an opponent. There are various types of cards which can be used to play karuta. It is also possible to play this game using two standard decks of playing card
s.
There are two kinds of cards used in karuta. One kind is yomifuda (読札) or "reading cards", and the other is torifuda (取り札) or "grabbing cards." As they were denoted, the words in the yomifuda are read and players will have to find its associated torifuda before anybody else does.
The two types of karuta cards that are most often seen are the "uta-garuta" and "iroha-garuta".
In "uta-garuta
", players try to find the last two lines of a tanka given the first three lines. It is often possible to identify a poem by its first one or two syllables. The poems for this game are taken from the Hyakunin Isshu
and are traditionally played on New Year's Day.
Anyone who can read hiragana
can play "iroha-garuta" (いろはがるた). In this type, a typical torifuda features a drawing with a kana
at one corner of the card. Its corresponding yomifuda features a proverb
connected to the picture with the first syllable being the kana displayed on the torifuda.
Karuta is often played by children at elementary school and junior high-school level during class, as an educational exercise. Although several kinds of Karuta games are described below, in reality any kind of information that can be represented in card form can be used including shapes, colours, words in English, small pictures and the like.
. An English version has been produced and is sold in bookstores across Gunma.
poems are written on two sets of cards that make up one full deck. Players have to quickly match the cards to complete a poem and recite it. The "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" is the most popular subgenre for the uta garuta called Hyakunin Isshu (Japanese: 百人一首, lit. 100 people, 1 poem). Compiled in the early 13th century by the poet Fujiwara no Teika
, this game contains one hundred poems, with each one written by a different famous poet.
.
s each starting with a different syllable and another set of cards expressing a proverb as shown in the picture. There are 3 standard Iroha Garuta variants; Kamigata Iroha, Edo Iroha and Owari Iroha. In addition to these there are several more modern card decks based on the Iroha Garuta pattern:
ese card game
. The game was created in the Edo period
and remained popular through the 1910s or 1920s. Each playing card
in the deck features a character from the hiragana
syllabary and a creature from Japanese mythology
; in fact, obake
karuta means ghost cards or monster cards. Success requires knowledge of Japanese mythology and folklore as players attempt to collect cards that match clues read by a referee. The player who accumulates the most cards by the end of the game wins.
Obake karuta is an early example of the common Japanese fascination with classifying monsters and creating new ones. The game is one of the earliest attempts by Japanese companies to categorize legendary creatures, label them, define them, and subsequently market them. As such, it is a precursor to the Godzilla
films of the 1950s and later. Even more closely, obake karuta resembles the Yu-Gi-Oh!
or Pokémon Trading Card Game
, which also involves collecting cards
that represent fabulous creatures. In fact, many Pokémon were designed specifically after creatures from Japanese mythology.
. This version of karuta was created by Kumamoto Kenmin Television, a local television station located in the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan whom are also the creators of Kumamoto dialect karuta.
(Japanese: 花札, lit. flower cards) were Japanese cards with flower designs. Beginning in the early 19th century, they are still in use today with a deck of 48 cards having different pictures representing each of the 12 months.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
.
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
s.
There are two kinds of cards used in karuta. One kind is yomifuda (読札) or "reading cards", and the other is torifuda (取り札) or "grabbing cards." As they were denoted, the words in the yomifuda are read and players will have to find its associated torifuda before anybody else does.
The two types of karuta cards that are most often seen are the "uta-garuta" and "iroha-garuta".
In "uta-garuta
Uta-garuta
are a kind of karuta, Japanese traditional playing cards. It is also the name of the game in which they are used. The game is played mostly on Japanese New Year's holidays. On each card, a poem is written, and there are a total of 100 poems. The standard collection of the poems used is called...
", players try to find the last two lines of a tanka given the first three lines. It is often possible to identify a poem by its first one or two syllables. The poems for this game are taken from the Hyakunin Isshu
Hyakunin Isshu
is a traditional anthology style of compiling Japanese waka poetry where each contributor writes one poem for the anthology. Literally, it translates to "one hundred people, one poem [each]"...
and are traditionally played on New Year's Day.
Anyone who can read hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
can play "iroha-garuta" (いろはがるた). In this type, a typical torifuda features a drawing with a kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
at one corner of the card. Its corresponding yomifuda features a proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
connected to the picture with the first syllable being the kana displayed on the torifuda.
Karuta is often played by children at elementary school and junior high-school level during class, as an educational exercise. Although several kinds of Karuta games are described below, in reality any kind of information that can be represented in card form can be used including shapes, colours, words in English, small pictures and the like.
Varieties of Karuta
Usually, many localities will have their own version of karuta with local history and landmarks.Jomo Karuta
Jomo Karuta (Japanese: 上毛かるた, jōmō karuta) is a variety of karuta which features history and famous locations in Gunma PrefectureGunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...
. An English version has been produced and is sold in bookstores across Gunma.
Uta-garuta and Hyakunin Isshu
Uta Garuta (Japanese: 歌ガルタ, lit. poem cards) is a card game in which 100 wakaWaka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
poems are written on two sets of cards that make up one full deck. Players have to quickly match the cards to complete a poem and recite it. The "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" is the most popular subgenre for the uta garuta called Hyakunin Isshu (Japanese: 百人一首, lit. 100 people, 1 poem). Compiled in the early 13th century by the poet Fujiwara no Teika
Fujiwara no Teika
Fujiwara no Teika , also known as Fujiwara no Sadaie or Sada-ie, was a Japanese poet, critic, calligrapher, novelist, anthologist, scribe, and scholar of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods...
, this game contains one hundred poems, with each one written by a different famous poet.
Competitive karuta
Competitive karuta is played with uta-garuta cards with competitions on various levels. The Japan national championship tournament is held every January at Omi Jingu (a Shinto Shrine) in Ōtsu, ShigaOtsu, Shiga
is the capital city of Shiga, Japan. The city was founded on October 1, 1898. As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 338,629 with an average age of 40.7 years and a population density of 905.28 persons per km²...
.
Iroha Garuta
Iroha Garuta (Japanese: いろはがるた) is an easier-to-understand card for children, similar to Uta-garuta and Hyakuin Isshu. Representing the 47 syllables of the iroha syllabary and adds kyo (京, "capital") for the 48th (since the syllable -n ん can never start any word or phrase). A set consists of 48 proverbProverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s each starting with a different syllable and another set of cards expressing a proverb as shown in the picture. There are 3 standard Iroha Garuta variants; Kamigata Iroha, Edo Iroha and Owari Iroha. In addition to these there are several more modern card decks based on the Iroha Garuta pattern:
Obake karuta
Obake karuta is a JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
. The game was created in the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
and remained popular through the 1910s or 1920s. Each playing card
Playing card
A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games...
in the deck features a character from the hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
syllabary and a creature from Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami...
; in fact, obake
Obake
and are a class of yōkai, preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean a thing that changes, referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting....
karuta means ghost cards or monster cards. Success requires knowledge of Japanese mythology and folklore as players attempt to collect cards that match clues read by a referee. The player who accumulates the most cards by the end of the game wins.
Obake karuta is an early example of the common Japanese fascination with classifying monsters and creating new ones. The game is one of the earliest attempts by Japanese companies to categorize legendary creatures, label them, define them, and subsequently market them. As such, it is a precursor to the Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
films of the 1950s and later. Even more closely, obake karuta resembles the Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
The is a Japanese collectible card game developed and published by Konami. It is based on the fictional game of Duel Monsters created by manga artist Kazuki Takahashi, which is the main plot device during the majority of his popular manga franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and its various anime adaptations...
or Pokémon Trading Card Game
Pokémon Trading Card Game
The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Pokémon video game series, first introduced in Japan in October 1996, then North America in December 1998...
, which also involves collecting cards
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
that represent fabulous creatures. In fact, many Pokémon were designed specifically after creatures from Japanese mythology.
Hokkaido Hougen Karuta
Hokkaido Hougen Karuta (Japanese: 北海道方言かるた, lit. Hokkaido Dialect Cards)is the first of a series of Talking Karuta produced by Discovery Creative in Hokkaido Japan which help children and adults alike learn different words and phrases used on the northern island of Hokkaido. Unlike most karuta where a reader need to be present for the game to be played, Hokkaido Hougen Karuta includes a CD-ROM with the reading of the cards being read by a native of the Hokkaido dialect. Hokkaido Karuta has become a popular version of karuta all over Japan because it allows the player(s) to play and learn without the presence of a reader.Kyo-Kotoba Karuta
Kyo-Kotoba Karuta (Japanese: 京ことばかるた, lit. Kyoto Word Cards)is a version of karuta using the Kyoto dialect. This karuta set was produced by Discovery Creative under the supervision of Osaka City University Professor Nakagawa Makoto. This also being part of the Talking Karuta series, the narrations were recorded by famous Japanese actress Itida Hiromi, an expert in the Kyoto dialect in Japan.Doyo Karuta
Doyo Karuta (Japanese: 童謡かるた, lit. Nursery Rhyme Cards)is a version of karuta made of famous Japanese nursery rhymes sang to music to help young children learn the Japanese writing system called HiraganaHiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
. This version of karuta was created by Kumamoto Kenmin Television, a local television station located in the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan whom are also the creators of Kumamoto dialect karuta.
Hanafuda
HanafudaHanafuda
are playing cards of Japanese origin that are used to play a number of games. The name literally translates as "flower cards". The name also refers to games played with those cards.-History:...
(Japanese: 花札, lit. flower cards) were Japanese cards with flower designs. Beginning in the early 19th century, they are still in use today with a deck of 48 cards having different pictures representing each of the 12 months.
External links
- Andy's Playing Cards: Japanese playing cards: An in-depth look at cards used in karuta.
- Karuta: Sports or Culture: A detailed essay about the game.
- Karuta at GenkiEnglish: a variation of the game using picture cards.
- Pingmag.jp
- OoishiTengudo/Karuta and Hanafuda: Shop of old standing in Kyoto.
- Discovery Creative Hougen Karuta: Karuta used in the various dialects of Japan.