There are 48 cards in a hanafuda deck, organized in 12 suits of 4 cards each. Each suit corresponds to a month of the year. There are 4 kinds of card: 'lights' worth 20 points, 'animals' worth 10 points (also including the sake cup and bridge cards), 'poetry slips' worth 5 points, and 'dregs' worth 1 point. There are 5 lights, 9 animals, 10 slips, and 24 dregs in one deck.
Each suit generally consists of 1 light or animal card, 1 poetry slip, and 2 dregs. Listed below are the cards in each suit, their point values, the names I use for them, and any information on their meaning that I have. The point values listed
are not used by some games, but are still useful for categorizing the cards.
January
-
Pine
松 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
20 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Crane" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
| Note: | The above poetry slip reads 'akayoroshi', a phrase the meaning of which is unknown |
|
February
-
Plum
梅 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Nightingale" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
March
-
Sakura
桜 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
20 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Curtain" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
| Note: | The above poetry slip reads 'miyoshino', the name of a town in Nara known for its sakura |
|
April
-
Wisteria
藤 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Cuckoo" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
May
-
Iris
菖蒲 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Bridge" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
June
-
Peony
牡丹 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Butterflies" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
July
-
Clover
萩 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Boar" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
August
-
Pampas
薄 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
20 points |
10 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Moon" |
"Geese" |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
September
-
Chrysanthemum
菊 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Sake Cup" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
| Note: | The sake cup can also be used as a 1 point 'dregs' card. |
|
October
-
Maple
紅葉 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Deer" |
Slip |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
November
-
Willow
柳 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
20 points |
10 points |
5 points |
1 point |
|
"Rain" |
"Swallow" |
Slip |
Lightning |
|
| Note: | The 'rain' card portrays a story about a Heian Era calligrapher named Ono no Michigaze (commonly called 'Ono no Tofu'). As a young man he was walking in the rain and saw a frog attempting to eat an insect in a willow tree. Watching the frog fail again and again before ultimately succeeding he learned the value of perseverence. |
|
| Note: | The Lightning card (also known as "the oni") is commonly used as a wild card. |
|
December
-
Paulownia
桐 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
20 points |
1 point |
1 point |
1 point |
|
"Phoenix" |
Dregs |
Dregs |
Dregs |
|
| Note: | The December dregs cards are often used for trademark information, much as how jokers are commonly
used in a Western deck of playing cards. |
Kabufuda cards are one of the many regional sets of cards based on European playing cards that became popular in Japan after the Tokugawa shogunate banned the importation of the European originals. 'Kabu' means 9, after the target number in all kabufuda games.
There are 40 cards in a kabufuda deck. The cards themselves are simple, consisting of the numbers 1 to 10. There are 4 of each card in a deck. There are no suits, but there are two cards with special markings. None of the games I have seen make any special use of these cards.
Hanafuda cards can be substituted for kabufuda cards by discarding the November and December cards and using the number of the months.
 |
 |
| Special 1 |
Special 4 |
|
