Japanische Spielkarten

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JAPANESE PLAYING CARDS
 Poly­chrome paint­ing on card­board — end of 18th century

Hyakunin isshu
One hun­dred poets and their most famous poems

The famous Japan­ese poet­ry col­lec­tion includes 100 poets from a peri­od of five to six hun­dred years, from ancient to ear­ly medieval lit­er­a­ture of Japan. The poets are almost exclu­sive­ly aris­to­crats, noble offi­cials, noble mem­bers of the Bud­dhist cler­gy, and court ladies. The fine­ly craft­ed cards on card­board, some­times bor­dered in gold or sil­ver paper, were found in the paint­ed state only in very wealthy families.

To the game

The paint­ed cards bear the poet’s name and the first part of the famous poem, the cal­lig­ra­phy cards bear the sec­ond part of the poem. In the tra­di­tion­al card game, the cards are placed on the floor in front of all play­ers. One play­er reads the begin­ning of the poem. The oth­er play­ers must find the card with the con­tin­u­a­tion of the poem as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Japan­ese chil­dren knew the 100 poems and pre­ferred to pick the match­ing parts on New Year’s Day.

JAPANESE PLAYING CARDS
 Poly­chrome paint­ing on card­board — end of 18th century

Hyakunin isshu
One hun­dred poets and their most famous poems

The famous Japan­ese poet­ry col­lec­tion includes 100 poets from a peri­od of five to six hun­dred years, from ancient to ear­ly medieval lit­er­a­ture of Japan. The poets are almost exclu­sive­ly aris­to­crats, noble offi­cials, noble mem­bers of the Bud­dhist cler­gy, and court ladies. The fine­ly craft­ed cards on card­board, some­times bor­dered in gold or sil­ver paper, were found in the paint­ed state only in very wealthy families.

To the game

The paint­ed cards bear the poet’s name and the first part of the famous poem, the cal­lig­ra­phy cards bear the sec­ond part of the poem. In the tra­di­tion­al card game, the cards are placed on the floor in front of all play­ers. One play­er reads the begin­ning of the poem. The oth­er play­ers must find the card with the con­tin­u­a­tion of the poem as quick­ly as pos­si­ble. Japan­ese chil­dren knew the 100 poems and pre­ferred to pick the match­ing parts on New Year’s Day.

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