Japan History and Culture

Japanese card game (Karuta game)

Karuta is a game traditionally played by the Japanese during the New Year holidays. There are two variations of the game, Irohagaruta and Hyakunin-ishu. Both of these are played with two decks of cards.

One of the decks has pictures on it; the other has sayings and phrases or poems. Irohagaruta, Japanese alphabet cards, number ninety-two. Irohagaruta is most frequently played by children while Hyakunin-ishu is an adult version of Karuta. Hyakunin means “one hundred people” and ishu means “one poem”. These words refer to the one hundred poems penned by Japanese poets during the seventh and eighth centuries.

Each year master Hyakunin-ishu players gather to test their memory skills in a national competition held on New Year’s Day. This eventhas helped make Hyakunin-ishu a type of national game among the Japanese.

The directions that follow are for making and playing an American adaptation of Irohagaruta, the children’s version of Karuta.

Making a Karuta Game

Using Japanese and/or American proverbs, make two decks of cards with 15 cards in each deck. There will be 15 pictures to illustrate the 15 proverbs (kotowaza). Cards can be the size of regular American cards or bigger. On one set of cards copy the proverbs. This will be the deck the reader uses. The picture cards will have to be drawn to illustrate each of the proverbs
(kotowaza).

Game Rules

1. A minimum of three people is necessary to play the game.
2. Players must remain quiet throughout the game so that everyone can hear the reader.
3. Players must keep their hands folded in their laps unless they are touching or reaching for a picture.
4. If a player touches the wrong picture card after the reader has read the card, then that player automatically loses any further chances for that round.

Playing the Game

1. Select the reader for the game.
2. The reader spreads out the picture cards face up.
3. The reader mixes the word cards and then reads one card.
4. The player who first finds and touches the corresponding picture card gets to keep both cards.
5. The game continues until all the picture cards have been retrieved.
6. The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.