Games, sport and playEast Asia
Karuta
In its own language: かるた
Japanese playing cards from the 16th century, still raced over poems each New Year
Karuta is the Japanese family of playing cards, named after the Portuguese word for card. Portuguese traders brought the first decks in the mid-sixteenth century, and Japanese makers at Miike soon made their own. Today the best-known kind is uta-garuta, a poem-matching race kept up at New Year and in competitions.
When is Karuta kept?
Karuta is kept on uta-garuta on New Year's Day; the national championship each January.
Karuta are Japanese playing cards, and the games played with them. The word comes from the Portuguese carta, since Portuguese traders first brought cards to Japan in the sixteenth century. From those imports grew decks of Japanese design, and from the decks grew games: matching games for children, gambling games, flower cards, and the poem race called uta-garuta that many families still play at New Year.
What it is
Karuta is both a set of card packs and the games played with them. The packs fall into two families. One descends from the cards Portuguese sailors brought in the sixteenth century. The other comes from e-awase, a matching game that began with shells, called kai-awase, and was moved onto cards in the early seventeenth century. E-awase games share one idea: a card is called or shown, and players must work out which card is wanted and seize it before anyone else. Simple versions are used in classrooms, where teachers at elementary and junior high level set them as an exercise.
Origins and history
Cards reached Japan with Portuguese traders during the nanban trade of the sixteenth century, and were known as nanban karuta. The Portuguese sets held forty-eight cards in four Latin suits: cups, coins, clubs and swords, with ranks one to nine and three court cards. Japanese makers copied them, calling the copies Tenshō karuta after the Tenshō period. The first of these were made at Miike in Chikugo Province. In 1633 the Tokugawa shogunate banned the imported-style decks, and under the country's isolation policy makers had to invent new designs. Ōmuta in Fukuoka now holds the Miike karuta Memorial Hall, the only municipal museum in Japan devoted to karuta history.
Dress and objects
Most karuta sets keep one Portuguese habit: the printed backing is folded around the card edges. Decks diverge after that. Mekuri karuta hid the old suits behind abstract patterns and nearly vanished, except for Komatsufuda, used at Yafune in Fukui for a game called Kakkuri. Kabufuda drops suit differences altogether: forty cards, numbers one to ten, four of each, and the ten is the only court card. Harifuda and Hikifuda serve the gambling game Tehonbiki, one with six ranks in Chinese numerals, the other with coin designs. Hanafuda arranges forty-eight cards as twelve flower months. Unsun karuta, with five suits of fifteen ranks, is still dealt at Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto.
Today and change
Uta-garuta is the form most people meet today: one reader calls out a poem and the others hunt for the matching card. Serious players compete, and the national championship has been held each January at Omi shrine in Ōtsu, Shiga, since 1955. School versions remain common; Iroha karuta, with proverbs instead of poems, comes in Kamigata, Edo and Owari sets, the Kyoto set being the oldest and the Edo set the most widely used. Obake karuta, which matched monsters to syllables, died out in the twentieth century, and later collecting games built on fabulous creatures are compared with it.
How Karuta is kept
In an e-awase game the cards are laid out and one person reads or calls. Everyone else scans the spread, decides which card belongs to the call, and reaches for it. The first hand on the right card takes it. Uta-garuta uses two hundred cards: a hundred reading cards with whole poems, a hundred grabbing cards with the closing lines only. One reader works through the poems while the players race. Children meet easier versions in class. In Ita-karuta from Hokkaido the grabbing cards are wooden, and the readers call out the second half of each poem.
When and where
Uta-garuta belongs to New Year's Day, a custom that started in 1904. The Japan national championship is held every January at Omi shrine in Ōtsu, Shiga, and has been since 1955. Competitive play also runs at other levels. The other karuta families are not tied to a season.
Karuta belongs to Japan, and every form described here grew there. Uta-garuta is played across the country. Komatsufuda survives at Yafune in Fukui prefecture; Unsun karuta is still dealt at Hitoyoshi in Kumamoto; Ita-karuta is found in Hokkaido; Obake karuta was made only in Tokyo.
What Karuta means
For players, karuta is a way of holding on to words. The uta-garuta decks carry the hundred poems of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, so a round doubles as recall of classical verse. Iroha karuta carries proverbs, one for each syllable of the old iroha order, so children learn sayings as they play. Obake karuta asked players to know the creatures of Japanese folklore, and it has been described as an early attempt to name and sort monsters.
Questions people ask about Karuta
When is Karuta kept?
Karuta is kept on uta-garuta on New Year's Day; the national championship each January.
What is karuta?
Karuta is the Japanese name for playing cards and for the games played with them. The word comes from the Portuguese carta. There are many kinds: decks copied from Portuguese suits, gambling decks, flower cards, and the poetry-matching game uta-garuta.
Where did karuta come from?
Portuguese traders brought playing cards to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century, and makers at Miike in Chikugo Province soon copied them. In 1633 the shogunate banned those decks. Isolation then pushed Japanese makers to design new kinds of cards, which is how the karuta families began.
Do people still play karuta?
Yes. Uta-garuta is played at home and in competitions, with a national championship at Omi shrine. Iroha karuta remains a children's game, and some older decks survive in one place or another: Komatsufuda at Yafune, Unsun karuta at Hitoyoshi. Others, such as Obake karuta, have gone.
What are yomifuda and torifuda?
In uta-garuta there are two sets of a hundred cards. The yomifuda are reading cards, carrying a whole poem. The torifuda are grabbing cards, carrying only the closing lines. One reader calls from the first set while the players search for the matching card in the second.
See also
Lion danceA dynamic ritual dance featuring costumed lions, drums and martial acrobatics
JiaoziCrescent Chinese dumplings filled with meat or vegetables, eaten for fortune and feasts
HatsumōdeThe first shrine or temple visit of the Japanese New Year to pray for good fortune
Japanese New YearAn annual celebration of renewal, seasonal foods, and bell ringing across JapanGood reading and sources
- Karuta on WikipediaEncyclopedia
- More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
- Wikidata recordOpen data
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Karuta", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.
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