How to Play Hanafuda 花札, a Japanese Card Game

February 25, 2019

Recently I have become very enamoured with the Japanese card game “Hanafuda” (花札), which basically translates as “flower cards”. It is a card game known to all but not necessarily played by many. When I was living in Japan I occasionally saw the cards at people’s homes, but like playing cards here in the West they don’t see the light of day that often unless it is a household of avid players or a special occasion. 

If you’re a Japanophile or a student of the Japanese language I recommend this game. It is a great way to learn some obscure kanji and vocabulary, add a neat Japanese social skill to your arsenal, and enjoy a piece of Japanese culture a little less known among foreigners.

This blog entry aims to introduce a little bit of the history, the cards themselves, and one of the most popular games called “Koikoi” (こいこい).

A short history of Hanafuda

This is a casual blog and I am not a researcher, so I will simply be borrowing knowledge from the commons for the sake of convenience. All credit is given to the original authors and none of it is my own work. 

A cursory perusal of general playing card history indicates that the first set of playing cards ever created were in China. They took the form of painted woodblocks used during the Tang dynasty in the 9th century A.D. From there, playing cards proliferated throughout the centuries and spread to Egypt, the Arab world, and eventually to Europe.

In 1549, the missionary Francis Xavier landed in Japan during the Tenbun period. His entourage brought along playing cards, and although Japan has its own homemade forms of gambling such as Cho-han, this gave birth to conventional card gambling. Card games and the cards themselves took various forms for various reasons throughout the centuries, but were mainly utilized by the Yakuza for illicit gambling purposes. 

In the late 19th century, Nintendo was formed specifically to produce Hanafuda cards for entertainment purposes. Wikipedia states:

“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, soon the Yakuza began using Hanafuda cards in their gambling parlors, and card games became popular in Japan again. ^[4]

Today, despite its focus on video games, Nintendo still produces the cards in Japan…”

Thus, the video game titan Nintendo was founded for the explicit purpose of producing Hanafuda cards, although these too became tools for illicit gambling. Today, Hanafuda has been replaced by Pachinko as the nation’s preferred form of gambling, but the game remains a family past time and Nintendo continues to produce Hanafuda cards in special editions such as Pokemon, Snoopy, and so on. 

The cards

The Hanafuda cards have 12 unique suits each corresponding to the 12 months of the year. There are 4 cards per suit and point values vary. But no matter what the card, it will belong to one of these 12 suits from January to December, and each suit is represented by a unique plant or flower.

Generally there are 2 to 3 normal cards per suit called “Kasu” (かす), meaning junk. These are not decorative and have a low point value. They are typically just the plant or flower displayed on its own. Then there are mid-level point cards including red and blue poetry ribbons, birds and animals, which are worth more points. The poetry ribbon cards are “Tan” (タン), and the animal cards are “Tane” (タネ). There are also special cards of high point value, called “Hikarifuda” 光札 (ひかりふだ).

The suits are as follows:

January  1 月  – Pine/”Matsu” –  松 (まつ)

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Poetry Ribbon/”Akatan” 赤短 (あかたん) (5 points) and one Special: Crane/”Tsuru” 鶴 (つる) (20 points)

 

February 2 月  – Plum/”Ume” – 梅 (うめ) 

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Poetry Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Bush-warbler/”Uguisu” 鶯 (うぐいす) in a Tree (10 points)

 

March  3 月  – Cherry blossom/”Sakura” 桜 (さくら) 

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Poetry Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Camp Curtain/”Maku” 幕 (まく) (20 points)

 

April  4 月  – Wisteria/”Fuji”  藤  (ふじ)

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Ribbon/Tanzaku 短冊 (たんざく) (5 points) and one Special: Cuckoo/”Hototogisu” (ほととぎす)　(10 points)

 

May (5 月) – Iris/”Ayame”  菖蒲 (あやめ) 

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Eight-plank Bridge/”Yatsuhashi” 八ツ橋 (やつはし) (10 points)

 

June (6 月) – Peony/”Botan”  牡丹 (ぼたん)  

Two Normals (1 point), one Purple Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Butterflies/”Cho-cho” 蝶 (ちょう) (10 points)

 

July (7月) – Bush clover/”Hagi”  萩 (はぎ)

Two Normals (1 point), one Red Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Wild boar/”Inoshishi” 猪 (いのしし) (10 points)

 

August (8 月) – Silver grass/”Susuki” 薄 (すすき)  

Two Normals (1 point), two Specials: Geese/”Kari” 雁 (かり) in Flight (10 points), Full Moon/”Tsuki” 月 (つき) with Red Sky (20 points)

 

 

September (9 月) – Chrysanthemum/”Kiku 菊 (きく) 

Two Normals (1 point), one Purple Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Ceremonial Sake Cup/”Sakazuki” 盃 (さかずき） (10 points)

 

 

October (10 月) – Autumn leaves/”Momiji”  紅葉 (もみじ)

Two Normals (1 point), one Purple Ribbon (5 points) and one Special: Deer/”Shika” 鹿 (しか) (10 points)

 

November (11 月) – Willow/”Yanagi” 柳  (やなぎ)  

One Normal, the Willow and Red Lightning (1 point), and three Specials: Red Ribbon (5 points), Swallow/”Tsubame” つばめ (10 points), and Ono no Michikaze/”Rainman” 小野道風 (おののみちかぜ) (20 points)

 

December (12 月) – Paulownia/”Kiri”  桐 (きり) 

Three Normals (1 point, one off-shaded), and one Special: Chinese Phoenix/Ho-oh 鳳凰 (ほうおう) (20 points)

Information source: Wikipedia

Graphics are property of tekipaki

When I was learning Hanafuda I had no idea what some of the plants and animals were, like Paulownia or Wisteria for example. I found it helpful to look these up so I had a conceptual idea of what they were in real life. As you’ll experience, the cards are very difficult for beginners to identify during game play.  Knowing the real articles helped a little bit. Eventually the training wheels come off and one relies solely on the cards, but learning a few extra plants and animals along the way can’t be bad!

As a side note, here are some of the special items on the cards. There are several birds and animals but I will omit them here and touch on the rarer items.

This is Onono Michikaze, who is credited with the creation of Japanese calligraphy. He holds an umbrella and is also associated with rain. 

 

This is a “Yatsuhachi”, which is a zigzagging bridge found in traditional Japanese gardens.

This is a traditional chalice or “Sakazuki”, which is quite a valuable card because it can be used to form multi-card combinations worth many points. Sake is received from this cup during special occasions like weddings.

If you’re like me and you enjoy learning obscure kanji or the proper names of “stuff you see around Japan”, I encourage you to look up all the various symbols, items, birds, etc., and their meanings and kanji. If you’re studying the language it’s good to learn the names and kanji of newly encountered phenomena as they come up in their natural setting. The added bonus is the context and correlation you derive.

Learning about the bush warbler from a line of text in the dictionary is fine, but learning it within the context of Hanafuda makes it less forgettable and also links it to both the game and the other birds and animals. Contextual learning helps increase overall memory recall.

Practically speaking, obscure words and kanji do come up from time to time in daily Japanese life as well. They are often used as jinmeiyoukanji/人名用漢字(じんめいようかんじ), which are the kanji used in places, names and surnames. For example, one of the stations on Tokyo’s famous Yamanote line is Uguisudani 鶯谷 (うぐいすだに) or, Valley of the bush warbler, if you try to translate it. Likewise, 菖蒲 (あやめ) is a girl’s name, and Fuji 藤 (ふじ) appears in  common Japanese surnames like Fujimoto and Fujiyama (not to be confused with the Fuji of Mt. Fuji (富士山) and the digital media and camera manufacturer Fuji Film (富士フィルム)).

At the very least, you could say something  like this if the situation arose:

えっ！あそこの八ツ橋の上に小野道風の絵の描いた盃が落ちているみたい！

Wow there’s a ceremonial chalice containing the image of Ononomichikaze laying on that traditional Japanese zigzagging bridge!

…. and everyone would immediately know what you were talking about. You wouldn’t even need to point at it.

 

How to play and score the game Koi Koi 

First, all players draw 1 card to see who the Parent/”Oya” 親 (おや) will be. The Parent gets to lead play. The earliest month wins Parent rights. So if I draw a card from the February suit of Plums, and you draw from the June suit of Peony flowers, I become the Parent and go first because February comes before June.

(Note: not only does the Parent lead, but he or she also wins the round by default if no one scores any points in the ensuing match.)

Once the Parent is established, 8 cards are dealt to each player and 8 communal cards are also placed face up on the table. Remaining cards stay in a pile face down in the middle called the Mountain/”Yama” 山 (やま). 

Play begins.

At each turn, players attempt to obtain their desired cards from the 8 communal table cards. This is done by matching cards from their hand to the suit of the desired card on the table. The cards are matched, the table card obtained, and both are then laid out in front of the player according to the associated combination.

For example, if player 1 wishes to pick up the Crane from the table, he must have a Pine card (any Pine card) to match the Crane, because the Crane is part of the January suit of Pines. If the player has no Pine cards, he may not pick up the Crane. 

If the player successfully obtains the Crane using a Pine card, both cards then become part of his points collection.

If a player has no suits in his hand to match anything on the table, a card must still be drawn from his hand. The player chooses a card to discard, and that card becomes a table card which opponents may now go after. No card is retrieved in this case because no suit was matched, and no points are awarded.

The turn continues.

Next, the same player flips over a card from the Yama pile, and in like fashion he matches its suit with something on the table. If a match is successfully made he takes both cards and adds them to his points cards. If no matches are made, the player leaves the drawn Yama card face up on the table.

(Note: If the drawn Yama card matches more than one table card, the player may choose whichever table card he desires, but only one.)

Thus, if all goes well a player may convert up to 4 cards into points: 1 from his hand and 1 from the table (matched suits), then 1 from the pile and 1 more from the table (matched suits), for a total of 4. Worst case scenario, the player ends up leaving 2 cards on the table for others without taking anything for himself. 

In this way players attempt to obtain the cards needed to make specific combinations of cards worth points. These are called “Yaku” 役 (やく).

When players successfully obtain table cards, these are displayed face-up in front of them in similar fashion to Rummy. All players can therefore see what Yaku the others are attempting to complete and strategize accordingly.

The following is the points rundown, or, Yakuichiran 役一覧 (やくいちらん). It shows the combination names and their point value in order from strongest to weakest. Points are also known as “Mon” 文 (もん). 

Although each card has an assigned point value as listed above, these values don’t come into play in Koikoi. Points in Koikoi are awarded based on the card combinations created.

 

Five Lights/”Go-Koh” 五光 (ごこう), 15 points. 

 

Four Lights/”Shi-koh” 四光 (しこう), 10 points.

 

Rain and Four Lights/”Ame-shi-koh” 雨四光 (あめしこう), 8 points. (It derives its name from Ononomichikaze holding his umbrella.)

 

Three lights/”Sankoh” 三光 (さんこう), 6 points

 

The following two combinations are easy to make because they consist of only two cards each, and a player may make both with three cards. The key card is the Sakazuki, which is why I mentioned earlier that it is a very desirable card. They are also easy to remember because their names are straightforward. “Flower sees wine” and “Moon sees wine”. 

Flower sees wine/”Hanamizake” 花見酒 (はなみざけ), 5 points

Moon sees wine/”Tsukimizake” 月見酒 (つきみざけ), 5 points

 

Next a combination using the non-bird animals; the boar, the deer, and the butterfly. Boar-Deer-Butterfly/”Inoshikachou” 猪鹿蝶 (いのしかちょう), 5 points

 

The Red Poetry Ribbons/”Akatan” 赤短 (あかたん), 5 points

 

The Blue Poetry Ribbons/”Aotan” 青短 (あおたん), 5 points

As a side note, one can clearly see the ribbons are purple and I have called them the purple ribbons above for simplicity sake, but these off-colour namings are common in Japan. For example a green traffic light is called a blue light. If you’re spaced out sitting at a red, your passenger will say 「青だよ」, or, “It’s blue! (It’s green, go!)”

 

In addition to the Inoshikachou combination, there are other animals and picture cards. Even if you cannot form a full Inoshikachou, collecting 5 of these “Ta-ne” cards will merit 1 point, with 1 point for each additional card beyond 5. 

 

In addition to the Akatan and Aotan combinations above, there are red ribbons without writing. Any combination of red/blue ribbons with or without writing that totals 5 ribbon cards will merit “Tan”, 1 point, with 1 point for each additional card beyond 5.

 

Lastly we have “Kasu”, or junk cards. These are the plants and flowers alone, and you must collect at least 10 of them. Collecting 10 cards merits 1 point, with 1 point for each additional card beyond 10. 

 

Ending the game on your turn/”Agari”, or, pressing onward/”Koi-koi” (Come on!)

Once you’re able to collect the cards needed to make any of the combinations above, you have the option to end the game on your turn. Ending the game in this way ensures your victory, regardless of what others have collected. A game ended on another players turn results in your loss. Unlike Rummy, you don’t have to get rid of all your cards, and Agari can be made any time points are gained. 

If you wish to keep challenging your opponents you say “Koi-koi”, or, “Come on!”, and play continues. Careful though, if another player lands a combination and ends the game on their turn, you have lost.

Depending on what others have laid out, what they’re after, how far away they are from making that combination, etc., a player can surmise the best time to Agari, and the best time to Koi-koi. If you have a stroke of luck and make a combination early in the game before anyone else has put anything down, you’ll likely want to Koi-koi because you’re not in danger. If it’s late in the game and you’re the first to make a combination but everyone else is also just a lucky card away, you’ll likely want to Agari and end on your turn, thus winning the round.

For example, you make Inoshikachou. You look around and see that no one is close to making anything. Play continues. Your opponents start to collect cards. One player is now just a card away from making San-koh. Luckily, on your next turn you collect two more Ta-ne cards, the Yatsuhashi and the Bush Warbler. Now you have both Inoshikachou and Ta-ne. At this point you want to Agari, because ending on your turn ensures your opponent never gets to make their San-koh. 

 

Where can I learn Hanafuda?

This is the best I can do to explain the game. By all means, please also refer to the rules as described on Wikipedia here if you need more information. The optimal course of action if you wish to practice and understand more is to obviously begin playing. You may, however, not have access to a deck or any opponents.

Luckily there are several wonderful Apps available for playing Hanafuda. The following are my top 2 recommendations. (Please note I am not an employee of Cross Field Inc. and receive no money for these recommendations, I just really like the games). 

 

Hanafude Koi Koi by Cross Field Inc.

Free with ads, or, Premium Version with unlimited online play and no ads for 500 yen/month.

 

There is also a version for beginners, which includes 8 lessons on the rules and 11 lessons on strategy. Unfortunately it is not in English, so your Japanese needs to be up to snuff for this one.

Hanafuda Koikoi for beginners (also by Cross Field Inc.)

Both of these games are beautifully constructed. The 500 yen (approximately $5) per month is a bit limiting however as I can’t see myself paying $60 a year for it, although I’d gladly pay $5 or even $10 one time for an ad-free version.  I mainly enjoy perfecting my play against the computer instead of online, and just endure the ads. 

The rule explanations and strategy lessons are very helpful and the game is not buggy at all. The AI seems believable and poses a decent challenge. Visually the graphics are very refined and the playing experience is pleasant. The game play reminds me of the little screens inside Pachinko machines for some reason.

Physical cards

There are many sets of physical Hanafuda cards available on Amazon as well, both the US site and the Japanese site. There are several versions of the cards, ranging from Mario to Snoopy to Pokemon. If you live in Japan you can likely pick a set up at your local Daiso or book store. A note of caution: don’t be let down by their size, Hanafuda cards are often very small. They are not nearly as big as a deck of normal playing cards. That being said, they are thicker.

I have not seen a large size deck yet, but since a lot of senior citizens play I would tend to think larger, easier to see cards exist somewhere out there! 

And there you have it, a simple primer on the game of Hanafuda. Enjoy!

Written by tekipaki Posted in Language, Travel Tagged with Card games, Gambling, Games, Japan, Japanese, Japanese Culture, Nintendo, Social