はなふだこいこい

こにちわ、

よくはなふだをします。I find it to be a very entertaining and challenging game. The game has many elements similar to that of western styled card games, but it also has it's on unique qualities that has definitely compelled me to spend hours away warring against a computer! In a sort of continuation to my Summer Wars post and for my friends who have shown interest in learning, I am making this post about how to play はなふだこいこい！

But first, a little history! In the middle of the 16th century Japan had a lot of contact with European traders, ambassadors, and missionaries, and along with many other things, these Europeans brought card games with them to Japan. The Japaneses really enjoyed the games...as well as the gambling. Towards the mid 17th century, when all contact with the West was banned, the cards and gambling where banned heavily as well. Still smitten by the games, the Japaneses began "a cat and mouse" (all of this is from wiki, so don't take this as law but like a rough history) game with the government; the people would make cards, they would get popular, the government would ban it, and repeat. One of these cards types was actually 48 cards with 4 groups of 12, like the current はなふだ. Eventually, the government realized that the common people, not just the gamblers, enjoyed playing, so they lessened the sever restrictions. Unfortunately, by then people had lost interest. The man who actually made the game popular was Fusajiro Yamauchi, the founder of the Nintendo company. He made professional cards and had his company manufacturer them. After a slow start, the Yakuza (the Japaneses mafia) began to use the cards for gambling and the game became popular. There are many variants to the game, but the one featured in Summer Wars and the one I learned was こいこい。

Ok, history's done! Now for the game....

The deck has 48 cards, with 12 groups, or as an analogy to standard poker cards, "suits". They represent the 12 months of the year, and are named after them. Each "suit" had 4 cards, like the four weeks in a month. はなふだ, or "Flower Cards", have flowers instead of numbers. Each "suit" typically has two plain flower cards and two special cards. One scores points by making combination, or ゆか (yuka) with these plain and special cards.

Lets take a look at the cards....

January- Matsu (松, pine)

February-Ume (梅, plum blossom)

March-Sakura (桜, cherry blossom)

April-Fuji (藤, wisteria)

May-Ayame (菖蒲, iris)

June-Botan (牡丹, peony)

July-Hagi (萩, bush clover)

August-Susuki (薄, Susuki grass)

September-Kiku (菊, chrysanthemum)

October-Momiji (紅葉, maple)

November-Yanagi (柳, willow)

December-Kiri (桐, paulownia)

That's all 48! You just need to look at the pictures and memorize which ones go in which month. Now, the Yuka!

かす。Kasu (Plains)

.

10 Plain cards. 1 point. Each Additional 1P after.

The "additional" means that if you get 11 plains, 

it's 2 points; 1 for the first 10 and then an 

additional point for the 11th plain.

たんざく。Tanzaku (Ribbons)

5 Ribbons. 1 point. Each Additional 1P after.

たね。Tane (Animals)

5 Animals. 1 point. Each Additional 1P after.

いのーしかーちょ。Ino-Shika-Cho (Boar-Deer-Butterfly)

Animal cards of Clover, Maple, Peony. 5 points.  (Fun fact! In Naruto, Ino's, shikamaru's, and Choji's family combination is named after this yuka!)

あかたん。Akatan (Red Poetry Ribbons)

All 3 red poetry ribbons. 6 points.

あおたん。Aotan (Blue Ribbons)

All 3 blue ribbons. 6 points.

さんこ。Sanko (3Brights)

3 Bright cards not containing Rain man card. 6 points.

あめーしこ。Ame-Shiko (Rain man)

4 Brights containing Rain man card. 8 points.

しこ。Shiko (4Brights)

4 Bright cards not containing Rain man card. 10 points.

ごこ。Goko (5Brights)

All 5 Bright cards. 15 points.

つきーふだ。Tsuki-fuda (Monthly Cards)

All four cards in one group shown right on screen. 4 points.

おやーけん。Oya-Ken (Dealer's Privilege)

If neither gets any Yaku, Dealer wins 6 points.　The dealer is always chosen at the beginning of the game, by both players drawing a card, and the one with the "better card", as in the one who gets the card from the earliest month, is the dealer, and gets the first turn. If both cards are from the same month, then the most powerful card determines the dealer.

ばけーふだ。Bake-Fuda (Wild Card)

The animal card of Chrysanthemum can be regarded as a plain card as well. If you have this, 9 plain cards and this card will be the Yaku of Kasu.

Rules change from game to game, but with the game I usually play, there are more yukas.

つきみでいっぱい。Tuskimi de ippai (Viewing the moon) is 5 points made with the moon bright and the bake-fuda.

かくらでいっぱい。Sakura de ippai (Viewing the cherry blossoms) is also 5 points and made with the sakura bright and the bake-fuda.

The game Play

You have 8 cards shown in a bottom row, that's your hand. On your turn, you should discard one of them, so that you match up the card you select and one of 8 cards in the center area. If there is none matching up, the card you select will remain in the center area. 

The cards matched up come to your card located at bottom right, where you are making and keeping your yuka (this is in reference to the flash game I will talk about below). You win when you get any kind of Yaku. At this point you can chose to declare "Koi Koi" to keep going farther to aim more Yaku for more points. 

The thing about declaring Koi Koi is that if your opponent makes a yuka and dose not declare Koi Koi, you do not get any points, regardless of how many yukas you had made. 

In the game I play, however, every time Koi Koi is declared, the amount of points you can get is doubled. As in, if your opponent declares Koi Koi, and then you make a yuka and stop the game, then what ever your yuka was worth is doubled and you get those points. Also, if you have over 7 points in yuka when you end the game, your points double. So, it is possible to have quadruple points at a time!

Here are some examples of game play from Summer Wars!

*for those of you who do not read manga, it is read from left to right, up to down. Manga is usually divided up in two or three rows per page. read the first row of panels first, starting from the left most picture and working your way right. Then, repeat in the next row. The speech bubbles are read in the same fashion.

Final words...

I took most of this information and images from this website (AKA I copied and pasted a lot...): 

http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/hanafuda/rule_e.html

and at the very bottom there is a link to play a flash version of hanafuda. The version I play is actually a free app in the apple store called:

Hanafuda Online

and it has three cards on it's icon, with a pink of yellow banner on it.

I hope this was easy to understand and I hope that some of you will consider trying this game out!

If you want a deck, I ordered one for 8 dollars on ebay!