All aboard the Hanafuda Railroad

[Eric Lee]

Nintendo still prints hanafuda? I had wrongly assumed they quit wholesale after the founder visited USPCC and saw the size of their operations compared to his.

[GandalfPC]

Second deck submitted for printing, an old hanawase deck which was too nice to pass up even though this one was missing card 1 (bright with sun & crane), 18 (with banner) and 20 (chaff).

For 1 I duped card 3 and grabbed a crane and sun off an old painting and blended it in
For 18 I used 19 and grabbed a banner off 26, flipping and warping it a bit
20 is just a dupe of 19

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Went for Mini European this time, a hair wider and a touch taller, as the art seemed to allow for it

[GandalfPC]

Nintendo still prints hanafuda? I had wrongly assumed they quit wholesale after the founder visited USPCC and saw the size of their operations compared to his.

Perhaps they stopped for a while (not sure), but they are certainly back in the hanafuda business now…

According to this playing cards as well for a few of their properties - and I’m quite sure they still make President hanafuda and a few others

[wingedpotato]

I linked this thread to r/Hanafuda for more people to find.

[GandalfPC]

Another reason to buy from Japan (at least if you live in the USA) when hunting your hanafuda, aside from the already better pricing, dollar to yen at best exchange rate in 10 years at the moment:

[STLBluesNut]

does it still turn out to be a good deal with shipping costs?

[GandalfPC]

Yes, using Amazon Japan I get a flat shipping rate for the entire order (I think that is from Prime membership, but not sure) of about $20 - and with zenmarket they hold your orders in their warehouse for up to 30 days for free so you can have them packed and shipped together for 20 to 40 bucks depending on total size and weight, insurance and extra packing - I tend to build up things over 2 weeks or so

Prices of items normally 1/4 to 1/2 of what they are in the US

[GandalfPC]

A third antique deck submitted to MPC - this one I went with a border.

I went with a border for several reasons - it seemed to look best with one, and standard hanafuda decks are bordered of course - but there are also several decks I want to print that if the alignment is off and some art goes a bit off the card it will really ruin them, and a border will prevent that tragedy.

The first two decks did look nice without border, and kept me from having to worry too much about alignment - one of the primary reasons I chose those particular decks to do first. Should borders align well I may try those decks in border format as well, which will allow me to get a bit more artwork from the originals around the edges (needed to oversize them a bit to make sure alignment could skew a bit without showing a cut edge)

I have printed a few decks with MPC in the past and I found that they had best alignment with M31 linen, a bit less aligned with smooth - so as a test I am having them make two smooth thick stock and one M31 linen (as the thick only comes smooth)

Going for the European mini size again, as it is a bit of a taller rectangle, will wait until these arrive before doing more decks as the results will tell the tale of which decks I can do and how I shall lay them out - hopefully european mini with border and thick stock works, as that should be optimal.

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[GandalfPC]

Ultraman Hanafuda by Bandai - December 2004

Thought this set was going to be standard hanger box cardboard but much to my surprise its PVC, and arguably the highest quality PVC I have seen (and felt) yet - a slight petal like feel, thick substantial cards. Hard to find this set for a good price, but hardly impossible - picked up a sealed mint set for a song (the tune of which I don’t remember at the moment)…. Copyright is 1966 on the art.

Art is awesome, yet another set that I didn’t know I could live without until it was unboxed.

Ultraman is a character I remember from my childhood - real tasty cheese.

[GandalfPC]

Godzilla Hanafuda by Ensky - made in 2019

Still quite plentiful and cheap in Japan - same PVC as Bandai uses but with less polished edges and a slight sharpness on the back edge from cutting - I imagine a bit of handling and play will fix that though. Still nice - very high quality and petal feel - and… - it’s Godzilla (and friends), so it had to be had.

Just noticed that months April, May and June (rows 4-6 on the left side) have the cards laid out right to left instead of left to right - chaff to bright - shame on me

[GandalfPC]

Mobile Suit Gundam Hanafuda by Bandai - made in 2002

Same high quality PVC with well polished black edges, still a bit of sharpness on the back side around the edge from when they were cut - very nice feel in the hand nonetheless.

Really like the art and colors on this one - nice colored backgrounds help in identifying the wheat from the chaff as well

[GandalfPC]

Odori Otoshi Purifying Hanafuda by Oishi Tengudo

Two sets, each with a different art, Nambuku-gumi (black back, purple box) and Tozaigumi (red back, green box) - both hand wrapped and warped high quality as one expects from an Oishi set.


There is a street god (a street) for each street in Kyoto, and two types are made on the streets of vertical (Noruth group) and horizontal (east-west group).


Namboku-gumi characters: Karasuma, Kawaramachi, Teramachi, Shinkyogoku, Aburakoji, Muromachi, Shinmachi, Nishinotoin, Higashinotoin, Pontocho, Senbon, Horikawa

Tozaigumi characters: Marutamachi, Shijo, Oike, Ayanokoji, Takoyakushi, Nishikikoji, Nijo, Sanjo, Anegakoji, Ebisugawa, Rokkaku, Bukko-ji Temple

[GandalfPC]

Latest batch from japan arrived, some nifty bits in there. The latest shot of the unboxing backlog…

[GandalfPC]

Cameron Photo Hanafuda

Poker sized, nice snappy stock, smooth finish - artwork speaks for itself…

[GandalfPC]

Hanaasobi Hanafuda by Tamura Shōgundō

A set that caught my eye for its unusual packaging, as well as a noticeable difference in the artwork that made it unique. Nice quality PVC with smooth edges and a feel that is more paper than petal like.

[GandalfPC]

Toyooka Hanafuda by Hattori

Hattori is a leather goods company in Japan - they made this deck to show off the local sites and they really knocked it out of the park. Unsure of who they had produce the cards but they seem to be Oishi Tengudo, with their high quality, the cards are hand wrapped and perfectly warped.

I came across it on a Japanese crowd funding site, it appeared to be the only hanafuda deck there - campaign was over but the makers site still had some decks for sale. I only picked up one, as I was unsure of the quality, now that they are in hand I ordered another three

[GandalfPC]

Komaru Kabufuda by Nintendo

These use the suit of Ôru (the pip style) - unlike the Kabufuda shown earlier, which had obvious court cards, this style uses abstracted courts, as they come from an era where gambling was illegal and they were “under cover”


A very nice quality set - Ace through 10 with three special cards (1,3,4) seen in the top row

[GandalfPC]

Mefuda Kabufuda by Nintendo

Also uses the suit of Ôru to depict the cards - same Ace to 10 as the Komaru, but a few more special cards (4s) - same quality as well - nice set…

[GandalfPC]

Daini Kabufuda by Nintendo

Same as the Mefuda, same suit used - different art (from different region)

[GandalfPC]

Still on the lookout for the coolest of the patterns. - Kudosan, the one style of the suit I am missing…

[GandalfPC]

A couple of odd ones I came across - not sure the one with the CD is a full hanafuda set or just a pair of cards, but the best my examination can tell from the pics it looks like a full set, and for about $10 it was worth the shot - both were dirt cheap, lost in the internet jumble of promotional material

[GandalfPC]

Echigo-bana (越後花) by Nintendo

Found out that Nintendo made these when I stumbled across them and snatched them up - seems from the Japanese Playing Card Museum that they have been making these for a while, not sure they still do though - a historic reproduction, you will see it is quite similar to Oishi Tengudo’s version - I will do a side by side at some point to see if similar is the correct word, or if they are closer to twins…

Printed in 2004 according to the date card

[GandalfPC]

Dragon and Tiger (龍虎 - ryū ko) Irinokichi Kabufuda by Matsui Tengudo

Name and wrapper also used for Kabu, Tehonbiki, and Komaru cards

This deck uses the suit of Hau, like standard Kabufuda cards

This was my expensive lesson deck - never seen another for sale, so I don’t know the fair market price, but I did likely pay more than I should have for it (hard to say though, as it may be rather rare) - certainly paid more than I would have, as I thought it was a rare 14 month hanafuda deck. Pleased in the end as without it I would not be so Kabu-crazy, and I do enjoy the hunt…

Very high quality, with Matsui’s four corner warp - this deck goes from Ace through 11, with the 9-11 being the courts, very abstract as mentioned previously, to avoid anti-gambling restrictions

[GandalfPC]

Akahachi or Red Eight Mekuri by Nintendo

Mekuri uses a four suited pattern, which is nice… Not the easiest set to get for a good price, but it can be had.

[GandalfPC]

Kurofuda Mekuri by Nintendo

Another Mekuri pattern, four suits, Kappa (round pips) style vs the above Kauppu (flat) - rather a fan of it myself.

As always, president is the highest quality of card. The last of my Kabufuda / Mekuri left to unbox, still on the hunt for the others.

[GandalfPC]

Junior Hanafuda

Three decks, the Phoenix from 2019 and Tiger and Dragon from 2020.

Tiger and Dragon are 14 season decks, identical faces with Tiger having a red back, Dragon blue. The two extra seasons are Lotus and Bamboo, as is traditional

The 2019 Phoenix deck is a 13 season deck, with Bamboo as the extra suit - in this case bamboo is given 6 cards, there is an extra colored back card and a card pointing to the internet instructions page.

Other than that, the 2019 and 2020 versions are nearly the same, with different color schemes used for various cards as well as a few borderless cards tossed into the earlier deck. Pics compare the Tiger and the Phoenix decks by season…

With these three unboxed my table is clear of backlog - still have a small stack of new decks awaiting shipment from Japan, but until then will likely go back and shoot some new pics of a few of the first decks in this thread which didn’t get the spread they deserved (plenty of glare and small selections of cards back then)

[hsbc]

Those are nice and colorful Maybe also post the pics in the Junior Hanafuda thread?

[GandalfPC]

Attack on Titan Hanafuda, made by Oishi Tengudo, art by Hajime Isayama

2022 release, wood box, Oishi Tengudo quality hand wrapped and warped set, fresh from Japan…

[GandalfPC]

Those are nice and colorful Maybe also post the pics in the Junior Hanafuda thread?

Done

[GandalfPC]

Another one that was hiding under a rock in Japan, had for a song.