Welcome ? outside the windows of the beautiful sun and the weather pampers us very much. Everything on Verizon! But today I will take you on a trip to the country of the blooming cherry, I hope that this trip will be unforgettable and you will bring from it a suitcase full of the wildest experiences. Namely, I have prepared for you a review, or maybe even more impressions concerning Hanafud’s game than the company’s release.
Hanafuda? What is it, actually?
Probably for most of you the name at least at the beginning may seem rather bizarre. I will therefore be in a hurry to explain what this is all about. To put it simply, Hanafuda is nothing more than a traditional Japanese deck of cards. Hanafuda is a quite specific deck of cards, because it consists of 48 cards, which are equally divided into 12 months. However, the name itself does not mean anything concrete, from a free translation it means as much as a “flower card”. As if not looking at the translation is very correct, most of the cards from Hanafud’s game, has beautiful, flowery and very photogenic graphics. One deck allows you to play several different games. Only two people are needed to play the game, there is no annotation about more players.
Playing Hanafuda
Making this game is definitely one of its strengths. The game packaging is small, matt in texture, with a slightly glossy lettering that stands out from the rest. The box is solidly made of high quality materials. Inside there are two books with instructions for the game and a short story of the game, thanks to which we can broaden our horizons. However, the book is written entirely in Polish and the second in English, so we can successfully play with someone who does not know American. This manual contains rules for up to three games that we can play based on the deck.
Going further, we have a small moulded piece which houses the whole deck of cards. The top part is coated with a suede material, which makes it look really attractive. A waist of cards is hidden in the press. The cards have beautiful, oriental graphics, but they have been made quite sparingly, minimally. The cardboard itself is quite average, but it still impresses players.
On the back of the box there is information about its content, also in American and English.
Talia Hanafuda
Talia Hanafudy, in my opinion has quite a high entrance threshold, because in order to fully enjoy the available games, you firstly need to get to know the entire waist thoroughly and thoroughly, and it is not so easy. The ball is made up of 48 cards, divided into 12 months. Each month is symbolized by a different plant. Each of the available months is assigned exactly four cards, with different point values.
Point values of the cards:
lamps: 20 points
animals: 10 points
rolls: 5 points
plants: 1 point
As a curiosity, I will tell you that the standard Japanese waist is very small, and the Hanafuda cards have been slightly increased because they have been adapted to the habits of European players.
Flower mixing, Koi-Koi, Mushi – Hanafud-based games
The publisher offers us three games which can be played based on the Hanafud’s waist. The first is the simplest, and introductory, one is to learn the waist. The second one is the most popular one. And the third one, probably the most demanding.
Flower harvesting
Exactly as I said before, the first game is for the whole deck of learning cards and their scores and properties. The game continues until we run out of cards for the hands, i.e. full 8 rounds. Then we summarise the point value of the cards in the hand and write down the results. This is how we play 12 rounds, after which we sum up all the results and then choose the person who won the game.
Koi – Koi
First we put eight cards on the table, each player (ko) gets eight cards each. The first player lectures the card best with the one that fits one of the cards on the table. Then he can take his card and the card with the matching month out of the table. If he does not succeed in matching the card, the one he put on is left on the table. The player then takes the card out of the pile and tries to match it. If he succeeds, he collects the cards, if not, the card stays on the table. When there are three cards from the same month on the table, the player can take them all by matching the fourth card. The next player does the same. Each player lectures the cards in front of them so that everyone can see them (discovered). The game is played in a counter-clockwise direction. The goal of the game is to win specific card hands.
Mushi
Mushi is a bit different from other games. First of all, the fact that not 48 cards but 40 cards are involved in the game means that the handles are different, we play 12 games, each time we have to leave the hand and each winner becomes a new hand (oya).
Summary
We have to admit that Hanafuda is an extremely oriental deck of cards, such a peculiar novelty among the European deck of cards for playing. The captivating graphics on the cards take us and our dreams to the country of the cherry blossom.