Description

A traditional Japanese trick-taking card game based on the European game Ombre (originally "l'Hombre"), played with a special 75-card five-suited deck. This deck developed from Tensh? karuta, itself a close copy of the 48-card traditional Portuguese cards called "dragon cards" due to the dragons holding the suit symbols in the aces. Its creation was prompted by a ban on the older form of playing cards after Japan closed off the contact with the Western world in 1633, and became critical towards everything of European origin. Sunkun karuta took this game one step further.

The deck contains all 48 cards from Tensh? karuta; these are supplemented by introducing a fifth suit and increasing the number of cards in each suit from twelve to fifteen. Most additions refer to Japanese and Chinese culture, presumably a conscious choice intended to downplay the European origins of the game.

The suits are ?? (hau), "flower" based on Portuguese 'paus' meaning "clubs", ?? (isu) a shortened form of 'espadas' or "swords", ??? (koppu) from 'copas' or "cups", ??? (?ru) from 'ouros' or "coins" (literally "golds") and finally the added ?? (guru) with the traditional Japanese ??? (mitsudomoe) sign as suit symbol. As in the European predecessor games, higher-numbered pip cards beat lower ones only in the former two suits, while the latter ones are "reversed".

The "dragon aces" are split into two distinct ranks by reintroducing a normal "one" in each suit and separate from the ??? (robai) or "dragon" which normally ranks right above the ones. Above the number cards (1–9 plus robai) there are five court cards. From low to high, these are: ??? (s?ta) "queen", ?? (uma) "horse", ?? (kiri) "soldier" (originally a king), ?? (un) various Japanese mythological figures and ?? (sun) various Chinese officials. The latter two ranks give the game its name. In the trump suit, the robai is promoted to above the kiri and the s?ta above this again, except that the robai of hau is a permanent trump which is the fourth highest regardless of which suit is trump.