Hanafuda Card Game

Summary

For over 500 years, a card game called Hanafuda has been played in Japan. It is also popular in Korean space and Hawaii. Nintendo was founded in 1889 to produce and market handmade Hanafuda card sets.

Literally translated, Hanafuda means “flower card”, because the 48 cards of a set are mostly decorated with floral motifs. They show the course from summer to winter. For example, cherry blossoms are for the month of March. Each month consists of 4 cards that are worth different points: two cards have flower motifs and give 1 point, one ribbon card gives 5 points. The fourth card of a month is either an Earth card (10 points) or a Light card (20 points).

As with the European rummy, there are different types of games, with Koi-Koi and Hachi-Hachi (literally eight-eight) enjoying great popularity.