Showing posts with label JAPAN CULTURE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JAPAN CULTURE. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

[JAPAN CULTURE] Koi-Koi Hanafuda


Koi-Koi (こいこい) is a popular card game in Japan played with Hanafuda.
The object of the game is to form special card combinations called "yaku" from cards accumulated in a point pile. Players can gain cards in their point piles by matching cards in their hands, or drawn from the draw pile, with cards on the table. Once a yaku has been made, a player can stop to cash in points, or keep going (referred to as "koi-koi", hence the name of the game) to form additional yaku for more points. The point values assigned to individual cards have no effect on the score, but they are helpful to judge their value in forming yaku.
An initial dealer (called the "oya", or "parent"), is decided upon when the game starts. This can be done with any method (rock-paper-scissors, dice roll) the players agree upon. A hanafuda-specific method involves random card draw: each player draws a single card; the player who draws a card from the earliest month is the oya.

To deal, the oya deals eight cards to his opponent (face down), the table (face up), then to himself (face down), though this is normally done two or four cards at a time. The rest of the cards are set aside as a draw pile, and then play begins starting with the oya.



On a player's turn, he may match by suit (i.e. month or flower) any one card in his hand with one on the table and take both into his point pile. If he cannot match a card from his hand, he must discard a card face up to the table. After matching or discarding a card, he then draws one card from the draw pile and places it face up on the playing area. If this card matches any card now on the table, he must match that card and take both for his point pile; otherwise, it becomes part of the table. In the event that the drawn card matches more than one card on the table, the player gets the choice as to which card to match and therefore keep in addition to the drawn card.

After a player's turn ends, if he made at least one yaku that turn, that player must then make a choice. He may end the hand and add the value of his yaku to his point total, or he can choose to continue playing (calling "koi-koi") in an effort to gain more points. In some versions, a player may only call koi-koi once per hand; in others, a player may call koi-koi on multiple yaku-forming turns. Calling koi-koi leaves the player vulnerable, as if his opponent is able to form a yaku before the caller forms another, the opponent gains double his score and the caller earns nothing. If a player has yaku totaling 7 or more points when the hand ends, that player earns twice that value. If a player hits 7 or more points and his opponent had called koi-koi, he gets both doubling bonuses for a total of four times his score.

The player with the most points at the end of the hand becomes the new oya, and a new hand is dealt. Should both players ever run out of cards to play without having formed a yaku on the last play, no points are awarded to either player, and the next hand begins with the same oya. Generally, play continues for 12 hands, but the players can decide to play for a different number of rounds before the game starts.

Some groups, when gambling, will require the player whose score was multiplied to pay a proportionately larger amount of the winnings (i.e. a player who continued play twice would pay twice as much as the other player, since his score would have been doubled).


InoShikaCho is a creature in the anime Dragon Ball, based on the game of Koi-Koi. Inspired by the card combination of the same name, InoShikaCho is part boar, part deer, and part butterfly.

In the anime Kamichu!, Ino, Shika, and Chou are the three tiny spirits that the God Association sends to Yurie as assistants. Their names are puns, as they were given by Yurie for unrelated reasons but correspond to the animals that they resemble, as well as being a card combination.


Another reference is team 10 from Naruto consisting of the members Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi, as well as the team formed by their respective fathers (and the rest of their families), Inoichi Yamanka, Shikaku Nara, and Chouza Akimichi.

In the popular 2009 Japanese animated movie Summer Wars, Hanafuda Koi-Koi is played by all members of the Jinnouchi clan, who were taught the game by the head of the clan, Sakae. The game is featured extensively in the movie, especially during the climax.

Miruku Bento like japanese games a lot and one of the traditional games is this Koi-koi Hanafuda! ^-^
Stay tune on Miruku Bento!! See Ya!!!!

Via Wikipedia 

Friday, December 9, 2011

[JAPAN CULTURE] Samurai

Ever heard of "Samurai Deeper Kyo"? "Samurai X"? or "Samurai Champloo"? Yes! They are the Samurai heroes in anime world! So today we're gonna talk about one of the Japan Culture, SAMURAI!


Samurai (侍 or sometimes 士) is a common term for a warrior in pre-industrial Japan. A more appropriate term is bushi (武士) which came into use during the Edo period. However, the term samurai now usually refers to warrior nobility, not, for example, ashigaru or foot soldiers. The samurai with no attachment to a clan or daimyo was called a ronin just like Jin from Samurai Champloo.

Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate, and over time, samurai during the Tokugawa era gradually lost their military function. By the end of the Tokugawa, samurai were essentially civilian bureaucrats for the daimyo with their swords serving only ceremonial purposes. With the Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai were abolished as a distinct class in favour of a western-style national army. The strict code that they followed, called bushido, still survives in present-day Japanese society, as do many other aspects of their way of life.

Etymology of samurai
The word samurai has its origins in the pre-Heian period Japan when it was pronounced saburai, meaning servant or attendant. It was not until the early modern period, namely the Azuchi-Momoyama period and early Edo period of the late 16th and early 17th centuries that the word saburai became substituted with samurai. However, by then, the meaning had already long before changed.

During the era of the rule of the samurai, the earlier term yumitori (“bowman”) was also used as an honorary title of an accomplished warrior even when swordsmanship had become more important. Japanese archery (kyujutsu), is still strongly associated with the war god Hachiman.

So today we have learned about the history behind the samurai, Miruku Bento will post more about Japan Culture next time! See Ya!!


Via JapaneseLifestyle