Reflection #7

          I looked into other countries using hanafuda and I found that Korea has their own version of this card game. The name of their version is Hwa-tu which means “flower cards” in Korean, but they are more reffered to as Godari or Go-stop. They are pretty similar but there are some differences:

-          -The five bright cards have a small yellow or white circle in one corner. Printed on the circle is the chinese character guang which means “light, bright”.

-        -  The ribbons in Hanafuda are usually purple while in Go stop they are blue

-        -  The text on the the ribbons are in korean characters hung-dan (read ribbon). The purple ribbons are replaced chung –dan (blue ribbon) that also don’t have andy writing on them.

-      -    Go-stop usually have extra cards than hanafuda which usually are bonus cards that can be grouped to make more combinations. their deck ends up being 48 suit cards plus and extra of 6 cards.

The shuffling of these cards are the same. When it comes to dealing out the cards each player ends up having 10 cards in their hand while the in hanafuda you have 8. As for gameplay the concept of trying to match cards, one from your hand and one  that is drawn from the faced down pile.  Some of the rules are different though. If a card drawn from the top of the draw pile matches two cards then the three cards remain on the table. The three cards remain on the table untill the player collects them with the fourth card. If a player draws a card the matches a discarded card then they take both cards and a junk card from eack opponent. If they get 3 cards of the same month then they double their points for every set of 3 they have. Or they can collect all 4 cards  when the fourth card is on the table as well as a junk card. If a player draws a bonus card from the draw pile during their regular turn, they will automatically collect it along with any other cards matched during that turn, except in the event that there is a set of three cards on the table,  in which case all four cards must remain on the table

Reflection #6

This week I found out how to use hanafuda cards to tell your future. Before you start fortune telling you must know that one can only read the cards for oneself. If another person touches the cards during the reading then it is nullified and you must start over from the very beginning. The cards divine the near future unless a specific question is asked.

First you must shuffle the cards. Then you lat out four rows of cards with four cards per row all face down. Then you deal out a fifth row face up looking for matches. When you find a match then you remove it and set them aside. Then you you continue to deal the rows of cards trying find more matches. If you come to a face down card in a row then you flip it over. If it matches then remove it. You then continue dealing, until there are no more cards left. When you are done look at all the matched cards. The ones with a matching set of all four cards are used in your reading. Lay them out and read your fortune. Here are the meanings:

January : Matsu = pine (with crane) = messenger
February : Ume = plum blossom (with nightingale) = love
March : Sakura = cherry blossom (with camp curtain) = voyage
April : Fuji = Wisteria (with cuckoo and moon)) = fight
May : Ayame = Iris (with plank bridge) = eating something good
June : Botan = Peony (with butterflies) = happiness
July : Hagi = Bush Clover (with boar) = luck
August : Susuki = Silver grass (with geese in flight & full moon with red sky) = going out and spending money at night
September : Kiku = Chrysanthemum (with sake cup) = drinking and meeting people
October : Momiji = maple (with deer) = worry
November : Yanagi = Willow or Rain (with lightning, swallow, and Ono no Michikaze with an umbrella and frog) = Visitor
December : Kiri = Paulowina (with Chinese Phoenix) = spending money

Here is a link to a video that shows how to do it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYi7vX-FzYE

Reflection #5

This week I looked into my family mon to find out more about it. first I looked into mon’s in general. Mon is a general term that refers to japanese emblems that is used to decorate an individual or a family. In history it was used only for aristrocratic families, but over the years they have been adapted and used by commoners as well. Usually the eldest male in the family inherits the mon and the younger son’s usually take the mon and modify it if they get married. There are more than 10,000 crests that have been reported from making modifications over time all the way to present day.

There are six commonly recognized divisions of mon: plants, animals, natural phenomena, man-made objects, abstract designs, and ji (kanji characters). My family mon is called a “Mokkou” which is part of the plant category. The mokkou  itself represents a cross-section of a gourd. I have read other places that it is also looks like a cut cucumber.  The term mokkou  in Japanese can mean meditative or contemplating. Last week I thought that my crest was similar to oda nobunaga’s crest and it turns out that they are. His crest is also considered a mokkou as well. My crest is just a different variation.