How to play Unsung Karuta
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Category Name:Entertainment / Competition
This was Japan's first Western-style karuta (playing cards), brought to Nagasaki by foreign ships at the beginning of the Edo period. It was Japanized and became popular throughout the country. However, after the ban on luxuries in 1791 (Kansei 3), it remained only in Hitoyoshi and Kuma. There are 75 cards in five variations, each variation consisting of 1 to 9 (numbered cards) of the same type and 6 picture cards of the same type (un, sun, lei, kaba, souta, and robai). The game is played in two groups of eight players, with the opponents sitting one by one in a circle. One at a time the cards are thrown to the center of the table, just as in Hanafuda. Starting from the card dealt to you, cards are played one after another, and the next card is taken. In the meantime, each player collects the pairs of cards he or she has won and keeps them in his or her hand, The player with the most cards wins.
Municipality
Hitoyoshi City
Category
Entertainment / Competition
Specific Location
Hitoyoshi City
Cultural Property Designation
Kumamoto Prefecture Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, February 25, 1965
Performance Date(s)
Irregular
Performance Location
Kajiya machi
Preservation Society
Association for the preservation and revitalization of the streetscape of streets in Kajiya-cho-dori.



