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"Karuta" Overview

Karuta Overview

Karuta History

Karuta as tools

Local Studies Karuta

First UK Local Studies Karuta

"Hidden" Japanese Culture

Karuta project

About Karuta

  • "Karuta" is Japanese matching card game based on 1000 years of tradition.  
  • Karuta game is played with two decks of cards, reading and picture (grabbing) cards.
  • An English Karuta pack has 26 cards, each with A-Z alphabet. The Alphabet on the picture card corresponds to the first letter on the reading card.
  • Karuta has been a fun, educational tool in Japan.

How to play

  • The reading cards are read loudly and a player will compete to touch the matched picture card before anybody else does.
  • The winner of the game is the player (team) collecting the most picture cards.

Different Version of Karuta

  • There are various Karuta which cards expressing various topics such as poem, geography, eco, science, history.
  • Many localities have their own version of karuta with local history and landmarks.   More (Local Studies Karuta)...
FROM JAPAN Institute  (Japanese site)