Karuta – A Japanese Card Game

In karuta, one player reads the writing on a card, and the others try to be first to spot the card with the picture that matches. This game has long been enjoyed by families and friends, but it gained a new face with the recent popularity of competitive karuta. Competition cards feature 100 famous poems from an ancient collection called Hyakunin Isshu. It’s a contest of speed as well as memory, and we’ll watch a national champion spot her card in just 0.2s. The old poems also provide an introduction to Japa