hanafuda

From Japanese 花(はな)札(ふだ) (hanafuda), a compound of 花 (hana, “flower”) + 札 (fuda, “card”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌhɑːnəˈfuːdə/
• Rhymes: -uːdə

hanafuda (usually uncountable, plural hanafuda)

1. (card games) Small, rigid Japanese playing cards with colorful drawings of flowers and animals, a single deck consisting of 48 cards divided in 12 suits that each represent a month.
   • 1892, Rossetsu Uchiyama, The Game of "Hana-awase": Japanese Cards‎^[1], page 1:

     A pack of "Hana-fuda" consists of 48 cards, there being 12 different denominations or figures, and each such denomination or figure being represented by 4 cards of different face values; the figures on such 4 cards of the same denomination being the same, but having certain marks upon them to indicate the difference in their respective face values.

   • 2013, Nagaru Tanigawa, translated by Paul Tuttle Starr, The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yen Press, →ISBN:

     Couldn't we play with hanafuda instead? I asked. I had a decent amount of experience with oichokabu or koi koi thanks to playing with my mom's family in the countryside.

   • 2015, Anthony Horowitz, chapter 19, in Trigger Mortis: A James Bond Novel, Orion, →ISBN:

     Briefly, Sin described the Hanafuda playing cards and how he had adapted them to his own ends.

   • 2016, Ch'en Huo-ch'üan, translated by Lili Selden, Special Issue on Imperial Subject Literature in Taiwan, US-Taiwan Literature Foundation, →ISBN, The Path, page 64:

     On a different occasion, he was playing hanafuda in a mountain hut with several Japanese.

   • 2022, Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Vintage (2024), →ISBN, page 74:

     “What’s hanafuda?” Sam asked.
     “Plastic cards. Quite small and thick, with flowers and scenes of nature,” Watanabe-san said.

• (especially for Korean-style cards) hwatu

hanafuda

1. Rōmaji transcription of はなふだ