1. What is Karuta?
JPN ILO

2. History Originated from Portuguese carta during mid 16th century
Most commonly seen are uta-garuta and iroha-garuta
In Uta-garuta players try to find the last two lines of a Japanese poem given the first three lines
In Iroha-garuta, anyone who can read hiragana can play by identifying the kana on the matching yomifuda card
Karuta is often used as an educational game for elementary and middle school children
47 cards to represent hiragana cards, save for ん and を, but adds 京 since no word can start with the kana ん or を
Typically played on New Years’ Day

3. Popular culture in Japan
Karuta cards can have popular anime themes that correspond with the show
Popular culture in Japan
Although Karuta is very popular in Japan, there are only about 10, ,000 competitive players
Popular anime Chihayafuru tells the story of a group of young adults coming to understand the world of Karuta

4. Competitive Karuta Rules
One-on-one game facilitated by a reciter and a judge
Each player randomly selects 25 of 50 torifuda cards, of which are randomly selected from a total 100
Reciter reads one of the 100 cards, 50 which are in play, and the other 50 are ghost cards
The first player to touch the corresponding card takes it and removes it from play
First player to get rid of all cards in their territory wins
Touching the wrong card in the same territory as the target card does not count as a penalty
Players can toss away surrounding cards near target card
Touching the wrong card in the other territory does count as a penalty
Touching any card when a ghost card is read is a penalty