hanafuda.html

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title: Hanafuda
description: 花札 (lit. flower cards)
published: true
date: 2020-09-18T19:49:34.348Z
tags: 
editor: ckeditor
dateCreated: 2020-09-10T15:55:58.382Z
-->

<p>Hanafuda 花札 [はなふだ], literally “flower cards,” are Japanese playing cards used to play a variety of games, similarly to the standard Western playing card format. Unlike Western cards, however, the standard hanafuda deck consists of 12 suits of 4 cards each.</p>
<p>Each individual suit, said to represent a month of the year, is themed around a particular plant, and has its own distribution of valuable cards. For instance, the Pine suit has one Bright card, one Poetry Ribbon, and two Chaff, whereas the Willow suit has one Bright, one plain Ribbon, one Animal, and one Chaff. This asymmetrical suit structure is taken advantage of in many games, whose strategies revolve around capturing specific <a href="/en/glossary#yaku">yaku</a> [役,<i>やく,</i> <i>yaku</i>] of cards within and across categories and suits.</p>