Deck description

The luxurious version of this discontinued hanafuda pattern from Yamagata prefecture has gold paint on all of the bright, animal, and ribbon cards, as well as some of the chaff cards. All bright cards in this pattern have a gold circle, making it easy to identify which cards are bright cards. The thin, worn-out lines of a "Musashino" woodblock pattern was compensated by using bold colors and stencils full of striking angular shapes, ovals, and crescents that don't quite match the faint woodblock print. Just like "Musashino" hanafuda decks from the late 1700's, this pattern includes Japanese poems on the Chaff cards, the closed umbrella on the Rain Man card and the lack of a lightning storm motif on the Willow Chaff. Hidden Lore The Crescent Moon: One of the August Chaff cards features a red crescent moon, which is treated as a Ribbon card in certain regional hanafuda games. The Pink Ribbon?: The yellow December Chaff card has a pink stripe on the paulownia leaf, which is treated as a Ribbon card in certain regional hanafuda games. Mysterious Black Dots: The pattern was designed such that each Chaff card of each suit is distinct from each other. Chaff cards that are identical in a typical hanafuda deck were made distinct by marking one of the Chaff cards with a black dot. It is thought that the black dot signifies the coins suit when the deck is used for playing Mekuri games.