I previously told you guys that I’m into Japanese culture and stuff. Living in the country I live in, it’s a little hard sometimes to find (or afford) imported merchandise that’s not considered “popular”, for example, Japanese games like Hanafuda. So I decided to create my own deck to be able to play it whenever I wish to.
Now then, let’s begin with a basic explanation of what Hanafuda is…
What is Hanafuda?
Hanafuda (literally, “flower cards”) is a traditional Japanese card game. It consists of a deck of 48 cards, with 12 suits representing months. Each suit is designated by a flower and there are four cards to each suit. One of the most popular variants of Hanafuda is called Koi-Koi, which consists of forming special card combinations (called “yaku”) from cards accumulated in a point pile.
Card List
There are 4 types of cards: Plain, Ribbon, Animal and Bright. There are 25 Plain cards, 9 Ribbon cards (including 3 Red Poetry Ribbon cards and 3 Purple/Blue Ribbon cards), 9 Animal cards (including the Sake Cup) and 5 Bright cards (Crane and Sun, Camp Curtain, Full Moon with Red Sky, Rainman and Chinese Phoenix).
| Month | Flower | Images |
|---|---|---|
| January | Matsu (Pine) |     |
| February | Ume (Plum Blossom) |     |
| March | Sakura (Cherry Blossom) |     |
| April | Fuji (Wisteria) |     |
| May | Ayame (Iris) |     |
| June | Botan (Peony) |     |
| July | Hagi (Bush Clover) |     |
| August | Susuki (Susuki Grass) |     |
| September | Kiku (Chrysanthemum) |     |
| October | Momiji (Maple) |     |
| November | Yanagi (Willow) |     |
| December | Kiri (Paulownia) |     |
Yaku list
| Points | Combo Name | Card Combo |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Sankoo | Any three Bright cards excluding the Rainman |
| 8 | Shikoo | The Four Bright cards which exclude the Rainman |
| 7 | Ame-Shikoo | Any four Bright cards including the Rainman |
| 10 | Gokoo | All five Bright cards |
| 5 | Inoshikachoo | The Boar, the Deer and the Butterfly (Animal cards from the Clover, Maple and Peony, respectively). |
| 1 | Tane | Any five Animal cards. One additional point is awarded for every additional Animal card. |
| 5 | Akatan | All 3 Red Poetry Ribbons (from Pine, Ume and Sakura). One additional point is awarded for every additional Ribbon card. |
| 5 | Aotan | All 3 Purple/Blue Ribbons (from Peony, Chrysanthemum, and Maple). One additional point is awarded for every additional Ribbon card. |
| 1 | Tanzaku | Any five Ribbon cards. One additional point is awarded for every additional Ribbon card. |
| 5 | Tsukimi-Zake | The Moon and the Sake Cup (Pampas’s Bright card and Chrysanthemum’s Animal card. |
| 5 | Hanami-Zake | The Sakura Curtain and the Sake-Cup (Sakura’s Bright card and Chrysanthemum’s Animal card. |
| 1 | Kasu | Any 10 plain cards. One additional point is awarded for every additional plain card. |
How to play Hanafuda Koi-Koi
The two players first have to decide the initial dealer (“oya”), this can be done by various methods, the most common being rock-paper-scissors, a dice roll or by drawing a Hanafuda card from the deck (with the player drawing the earliest month winning). Then, eight cards are dealt to each player (face down) with an additional eight cards being placed on the table (face up). The remaining cards are placed in a draw pile.
On a player’s turn, they may place a card on the table face up; if they can make a match with a card already on the table (by month or flower), the take both cards into their point pile. If they cannot match, the card is left on the table. After matching or discarding a card, they draw a card from the draw pile and place it on the table face up. Again, if it matches a card already on the table, they take both cards for their draw pile; if it doesn’t, they leave the card on the table.
After the player’s turn ends, if they make a yaku during that turn, they have a choice to make: they may end the hand and add the value of their yaku to their point total, or they can choose to continue playing (saying “koi-koi”) and attempt to add more points to their total. However, this leaves them vulnerable, as if their opponent forms a yaku before the caller forms another, the opponent earns double the score and the caller earns nothing. If a player has a yaku totaling 7 or more points when the hand ends, they double their score on that hand. If a player earns 7 or more points and their opponent had called koi-koi, they get both doubling bonuses for a total of four times their score.
The player who wins the hand becomes the new oya and the game continues by dealing a new hand. If both players ever run out of cards before earning any yaku, a new hand is dealt with the same oya. Usually, the game may continue for 3, 6 or 12 hands; the players decide how many rounds they will play before the game starts. The winning player is the one with the most total points after all rounds are played.
Instructions to Make Your Own Hanafuda Card Deck
Now that you know how the game works, let´s go to the actually-making-your-own-deck part. First you will need:
- 2 cardboard paper sheets (the stronger the better but you can also just use plain paper).
- Clear/Transparent contact paper (or adhesive tape)
- Guillotine paper cutter or scissors
- Download this pdf file, you will need to print it out later
- Printer
Print the file you downloaded on both sides of the paper. You should have one side with the card design (face up) and the other side with the card back (face down).
Use the contact paper to cover the cardboard paper on both sides. If you are using adhesive tape, you only need to cover the part with the card design (on both sides).
Use the guillotine paper cutter or the scissors to cut out the cards. The straighter you get them, the better they will look.
You’re done! You can now use your newly self-made card deck to play Hanafuda whenever you want!
Here is my own deck and how it ended up looking:
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