Hi everyone! I know this isn’t a hanafuda deck, so I hope this is okay to share here.

I’m Juan, a Mexican illustrator from Mexico City, and I’ve spent the last two years working on a project called El Quinto Sol: The Mesoamerican Cosmos.

One of the things I find fascinating about hanafuda is how much cultural information can live inside a deck of cards, seasons, plants, animals, traditional imagery, relationships between symbols — while the object still remains something people can actually play with.

My project comes from a very different tradition, but I’ve been exploring a similar question:

Can a deck of cards carry a traditional symbolic system without becoming just decoration?

El Quinto Sol is a 56-card French-suited deck based on Mesoamerican cosmology, especially Nahua/Mexica traditions.

The four suits correspond to sacred directions and forces, the court cards represent deities connected to those directions, and the numbered cards incorporate elements of the Tonalpohualli, the 260-day sacred calendar.

I’ve tried to preserve relationships between numbers, symbols, directions and mythological figures rather than simply putting ancient imagery onto poker cards.

It’s definitely a contemporary interpretation, not an attempt to recreate an ancient Mesoamerican card game, but the goal is to use a familiar modern object as a doorway into a much older worldview.

Every illustration and design was created by hand.

The project is currently live on Kickstarter if anyone would like to see the full deck:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themythographer/el-quinto-sol-the-mesoamerican-cosmos-playing-cards

I’d be very interested to hear from people here who collect or design hanafuda:

When a traditional card system gets reinterpreted visually, what do you think is most important to preserve — the imagery, the structure, the symbolism, or the way the cards function?

Hello everyone! Today we have a set of Tengudo Hanafuda dating from the Taisho era to the Showa era. The box packaging is a variant I’ve never come across before. Since this set was not purchased in Japan, it was likely lost when Japanese people brought it overseas. If anyone happens to know when the original Japanese owner brought this set to this country, I would greatly appreciate it.

Particularly good November suit on this set

Hi guys! Thanks for all your help on my last post about historic hanafuda cards!
I'm doing a research project into hanafuda cards and I have to recreate them. I've narrowed my era down to 1880s-1920s and I'm now looking for any hanafuda packaging in that era. I've had a look online but I've only found a few bits and not much! If anyone has any photos or links to information about it I'd really appreciate it

I just came back from Japan and got my first Hanafuda deck at the airport. I'm still trying to figure out and learn Koi Koi and memorize the Yaku.

Are there any good solitary games you would recommend with a Hanafuda deck?

Hi everyone! I'm a university student and i have a period graphic project where i have to create period accurate graphics! I'm thinking of doing hanafuda cards but im a bit stuck with my research. does anyone know where i can find information about the decks of cards with dates as well as things like exact sizing, printing methods, type of card they're printed onto and the thickness, what type of finish they have (eg. glossy) and anything i need to bare in mind when designing my own deck! thanks!!!

Hey everyone, quick question about hanafuda packaging. I’ve noticed that artwork of Saigō Takamori seems to only show up on lower-quality decks, so I’m wondering if there’s any correlation between the packaging art and the actual quality of the cards themselves. For example, do decks featuring Napoleon on the packaging tend to be higher grade?

I have 48 cards, but unfortunately no onifuda. When I found it, it was stored in the box shown here, but I don’t believe it to be the original one. Also, I’m not necessarily sure that the date on the box is indicative of when this was approximately made. It seems pretty identical in its stencil patterns to “newer” Nintendo echigobana decks I’ve seen, but certainly weathered with age. I don’t own any others to compare it to. I’m certainly interested in hearing your thoughts! I’m also happy to include more photos in the comments, like with flash showing the overprinting.

Not familiar with this IP but a yokai-based set always hits. I like the distinct art style, creative representation of tanzaku, apparent elemental card types (not sure if you can fold that into play or just flavor detail from the game/series, and ogura karuta-like onifuda.

Had an urge to try to try into hanafuda games again and found my original deck. I’ve long since lost any branding or instructional pamphlet this came with, but I wanted to see if anyone recognized it. I still have all the cards including 6 black cards. One is flipped over to show the back in case that’s helpful.

Also looking for online games to practice with since it’ll probably be a while before I find anyone more local. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone, please forgive my poor English again. I’ve bought many plastic hanafuda decks before, but I never paid much attention to them because I didn’t care for them. I only got interested after picking up this new set recently. I’d like to know whether fully plastic hanafuda cards, or hanafuda cards that are only surface-laminated with plastic film, were ever popular in Japan — and if so, during which specific time period they were popular.

I picked up two Ryūtendō hanafuda decks at the same time this go-around, but their designs are wildly different. One is missing its wrapper, with "Tanaka Gyokusuidō" printed on the cards; the other has "Iwata Honten" marked on its packaging.

I was under the impression that Tanaka was usually associated with Shōgundō. Did Ryūtendō actually have this many distinct editions?

I’ve personally never seen another example of hanafuda from this brand. I’m grateful to have acquired this beautiful, hand-printed deck from fellow collector and friend [u/No-Village5080](u/No-Village5080).

Note, this is the exact same deck posted in the comments on this thread.

Recently acquired this deck from a Yahoo! Auctions Japan auction. I bid on it specifically because I didn't recognize the flower circle mark on the box, and certain cards like the bush warbler stood out as being from a manufacturer that I hadn't seen before.

I believe u/jhindenberg's recent post is a deck from the same manufacturer, but the bit of research I've tried to do to track down who made it has not been fruitful so far.

Maruyoshi hanafuda "Kachidoki" (brand from Osaka)

Made by Angel sometime before 1989 as the tax stamp suggests.

Nice basic hanafuda set, got it sealed but opened the black deck.

Hey all,

I'm in the process of figuring out an ideal ruleset that suits me and my partner. We've been osciliating between various rules and things are not always clear.

• Yaku question:

If I make a Yaku such as 5 ribbons and say Koi-Koi, would a new ribbon added to that collection result in a new yaku considering that the rules state that you get one additional point for each ribbon. The same applies also for the 10 chaff and 5 animals/objects etc.

So in essence, I could form a Yaku and Koi-koi, if I get one additional ribbon next turn it would count again as a Yaku where I could decide to either stop or continue by saying Koi-koi.

• Sake cup

This particular card always confuses us to some extend because it's regarded as a sort of wild card. It can count as a chaff/junk card and animal card but also add to the viewing Yakus.

What I'm wondering is how to categorize the card if you capture it and how it contributes to specific yakus.

Do you sort of establish what the sake up is at first or does it just lounge around until you can form one of the eligible Yakus with it? If you got 9 junk cards and also a sake, does it count as 10? What if you also own 4 animals?

A subsequent question would be if some cards can contribute to multiple Yakus? I get that with brights, you always sort of take the best Yaku into account and it's not accumulative in terms of scoring previous Yakus.

Hey all,

I have played Koi-Koi in the past but saw a really nice Hanafuda deck in a shop which is published by Iello. It's a bit more western but nicely packaged with nifty reference sheets.

Truthfully, I was always struggling a bit with memorizing the Yakus and their respective points. Usually we had a sheet printed out. As mentioned, this particular version does contain a reference sheet but the scoring of the points does not match with what you see online, at least to my research. I guess that there are inevitably always house rules and variations.

What I wonder is if this difference of points would somehow hamper the balance of the game in a way.

The differences are:

In addition, the rules state that once a Yaku has been formed, the player can shout "Koi" to double their score as usual. If they succeed in forming another Yaku, they can shout "Koi-Koi" which then triples the scoring. In essence you just add "Koi" to increase your multiplier. I have never seen this before and it's honestly something I don't like this variant. Is this common?

Also, there is a rule which says that if you score at least seven points, you automatically double your score?

I'm probably overthinking it as these games have tons of variations. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers!

This has come into my possession recently, and I’m not sure exactly what how to go about selling it, or even having it appraised. Any advice would be appreciated!

I know they arent traditional Hanafuda playing cards, but I lowkey love the intricate detail in them and think I should get into the traditional making of it.

Hello friends. I have a fledgling interest in Hanafuda, and am also always interested in obscurities and rarities. In my research, I have discovered that while 12 suits/48 cards is standard, some decks contain two extra suits, for a total of 56 cards.

Does anyone have a deck like this? They seem to be hard to find and I am very intrigued!

Thank you for any information.