"Bouzu-Mekuri", Japanese traditional card game

My children and I often play "Bouzu-Mekuri" recently.

"Bouzu-Mekuri" is one of the Japanese traditional card game using Karuta of "Hyakunin Isshu".

"Hyakunin Isshu" is one of the most Japanese classical famous anthologies of "waka" written by 100 poets.

"Waka" is a short poem which express a scene, feeling, seasons, and so on with 31 Japanese letters and it sounds very rhythmical.

It is presumed that it has been established in the first half of the 13th century (though it has not been determined).

Hyakunin Isshu is now famous for its Karuta game.

There are 200 cards in Hyakunin Isshu.

100 cards of them are written each poem and the picture of the poet who wrote it.

Another 100 cards are written each of the last part of the poem in Hiragana (one of the Japanese character).

 



 

When we play "Bouzu-Mekuri", we only use the picture cards.

 

We place all of the picture cards face down.

 

Each of us will turn over one card and if we can see man's face in the card, that means  you can take it.

 

On the other hand, if you can see a princess (woman) in the card,  it means you get one more chance to turn another card.

 

If you can see a Buddhist priest in the card that you turn over, that means you have to release all the cards you had.

 

If you can see an Emperor who is seated on a stripe pedestal in the card, that means you can get the cards released by other people.

 

The person who gets the most number of cards will win the game.

 

(The rules are different from each family so it is my family's rules.)

 

 

This game doesn't need any skills, it depends on who is the luckiest!

 

My children enjoyed the game very much.

 

 

~*~*~*  Note ~*~*~*

 

I will not able to enter my entries here every day for a while
because I need to focus on my review for a certification's exam.

Unfortunately it is not related to English, but it is for the betterment of my career.

I will sometimes post my diary, so please visit here again!

 

 

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Stormy Karuta game

Our family played "Karuta" after we finished dinner yesterday.

Karuta is one of the Japanese card game.

There are two kinds of card used in Karuta, one is "yomifuda (reading cards)" which a sentence is written on each of them, and another is "torifuda (grabbing cards)" which the first letter of each sentence and a picture related with the sentence is written on each card.

First, place grabbing card with face up on the floor.

Then the words in the yomifuda are read by a reader and players will have to find its associated torifuda before anybody else does.

There are 50 yomifuda and torifuda because there are 50 hiragana ( one of the Japanese letters).

The person who gets cards the most when the game is over is the winner.


First, my husband was a reader and my 6-year-old son, 4-year-old daughter and I were players.

I got the first torifuda, suddenly she started crying!

Since I expected that this game would become funny, so I recorded it with the video camera.


After that, my daughter cried loudly in frustration when torifuda was got by my son every time, and when she chould got a card, she stopped crying and smile sticked out her tounge.

While we were playing karuta, she repeated cry and smile.

It was so funny that she was a sore loser like me!

When I was a little child, I didn't like loosing the game too.

I used to cry like my daughter when I lost the game when I played it with my family.


This is "Youkai Watch Karuta" given my sister at my son's birthday.

This Karuta was excellent.

We can play not only karuta but also the other two card games.

We enjoyed it very much.

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Hide-And-Seek

My 5-year-old son asked me "Why don't you play hide-and-seek, mom?"

I answered "OK!"

He told me "Then you hide first!"

But my 4-year-old daughter told us "No! I will go with mom!"

I told her "No! If you come with me, I will not be able to hide."

She said, "But I am scared if you are not with me.."

There was a reason why she said that.


We also played hide-and-seek three days ago.

When I was it, I hid behind the stroller at the entrance hall.

Since there was very dark, they couldn't find me.

They looked for all rooms of the first floor saying "Where is mom? Moooooom!"

I found it very funny that I almost burst out with laughter.

My son told her sister, "Mom might go upstairs, let's go to seek her!"


After I checked they went to the second floor, I changed my hiding place into the kitchen.

Because they were in the living room next to the kitchen when I was going to hide, I thought they thought it was impossible for me to hide in the kitchen.


Since they couldn't find me after they searched all dark rooms of second floor, they were apparently growing nervous.

I heard my daughter's voice that she was about to cry with the uneasiness, "Where are you mom?"

They came down to the first floor saying, "Mom, come out!"

I thought this was the end of the game, I said "I'm here!"

They run to me saying "I found you!"

It was funny that they didn't wonder why I was in the kitchen and they only seemed relieved to find me.


I hid in simple place where they could find me easily yesterday!


By the way, we call it "oni (ogre)" in Japanese↓.

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~ Daruma san ga koronda ~ Do you know the way of counting in Japanese?

In the book I read to my children the day before yesterday, there was a scene where a boy was told by his father "Count 100 before you get out of  the bath".

He didn't count like "1, 2, 3・・・", but "Daruma san ga koronda"  （だるまさんがころんだ in Japanese） ten times.

I explained the meaning of this way of counting to my children.



"Daruma" is one of the famous Japanese traditional doll.

Its figure looks like a man who has a beard.

It's not only a figurine but it's also a toy for kids.

It is a tumble doll, always returns to an upright position when tipped over.



"Daruma san ga koronda" is one of the Japanese traditional games.

I have heard that there are similar games all over the world.

It is called "Red light, Green light" in English speaking countries, isn't it?

It is written " だるまさんがころんだ" in Japanese Hiragana (one of the name of Japanese letters).

It includes 10 Hiragana letters, so it is used when we count to 10.

"Daruma san ga koronda" is easier to say than  "1, 2, 3 ( いちにさん)" and so on.


I told my children "When I was a child, your grandpa used to say "Count 1 to 100 before you get out of the bath", so I counted saying "Daruma san ga koronda" ten times."

They were greatly amused by this story, they showed that they counted by "Daruma san ga koronda" to my husband.

He said "What is it? What are you doing?"

I was surprised that he didn't know the way of counting.

It may be said that not all Japanese know about it.




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