I was recently watching the Higurashi anime series and there was a scene, which in Higurashi fashion we saw again later on, in which the main characters partook in a card game that involved grabbing them quickly when something was said. I recognised that I’d seen this game in other media and decided to take a look into it. Therefore, I thought I might explain what karuta is and as well as some of the history of these Japanese playing cards.
First off, let’s take a look at the cards themselves and, more specifically, the types of games you can play with them. Karuta cards are broken up into two groups, cards that are descended from Portuguese-suited playing cards and cards whose lineage hails from E-awase. The two most popular card games, Uta-garuta and Iroha karuta, come from the E-awase group while cards of Portuguese-suited playing cards descent continue to be used for gambling games such as Koi-Koi, Oicho-Kabu, Tehonbiki etc.