Thursday 14 June 2012

Tengu Hanafuda by Nintendo


One of the most popular Nintendo hanafuda decks is the Tengu deck. The Tengu Hanafuda deck is a high-quality deck, second only to the Daitoryo Hanafuda deck. The cards are stored in a sturdy plastic box with the famous picture of Tengu, a notorious Japanese demon-god on it.

As you can see, Tengu has a long nose, white beard and bushy eyebrows. He is wearing a 'Tokin' cap on his head and is holding an eight-fingered fatsia Japonica (Japanese Aralia) leaf which serves as a magical fan.
 
The Japanese word 'Hanafuda' is made up of two characters. 'Hana' means 'Flower' and 'Fuda' means 'Card'. However, the word 'Hana' can also mean 'Nose' and in the days when gambling with Hanafuda was illegal, you would show the proprietor of an illegal gamgbling den that  you wanted to play Hanafuda by rubbing your nose, which is how Hanafuda came to be associated with the Tengu demon-god!

Like the Daitoryo deck, the cards measure 5.4cm by 3.3cm or 2.1/8" (2.125") by 1.5/16" (1.325") in old money and are available in Black or Ochre.  Rules for Koi-Koi and Hachi Hachi are supplied with the cards and not surprisingly these are in Japanese only.


1 comment:

  1. Anyone know what year these were made? I have this deck.

    ReplyDelete