Playing Cards

A pack of playing cards called Iroha Karuta intended for children to learn Japanese characters called hiragana. There are 84 cards in total. 44 have images and a kana character in the corner and 40 cards have a poem or proverb that starts with the same hiragana character as the cards with images. The game consists of a player reading the proverb and the other players needing to find the card with the corresponding character. The first to do so wins that round. A typical set has 96 cards (48 with images and 48 with a proverb). The following four cards are missing from the cards with the image: と to, よ yo, む mu, け ke. The following eight cards are missing from the proverb cards: と to, よ yo, け ke, え e, う u, ゆ yu, ゑwe, す su. This set includes two kana no longer in use, wi (ゐ) and we (ゑ) as well as card for kyo (京). The order of the cards is based on a poem from the Heian period that uses every kana character only once thus making it a pangram. The poem is:

いろはにほへと

ちりぬるを

わかよたれそ

つねならむ

うゐのおくやま

けふこえて

あさきゆめみし

ゑひもせすん