いろはかるた
Iroha karuta pairs spoken Japanese proverbs or short phrases with cards that players take. The phrases follow the older kana order beginning i, ro, ha. One person reads while the others find the matching picture card. Regions, publishers and successive generations have changed the sayings, images and contents of the sets.
Reading cards supply the phrases; taking cards are the players’ targets.
The same opening kana can introduce different sayings in different sets.
Count entries, pairs and physical cards separately.
A reading card carries the phrase to be called. A taking card uses a picture and opening character to help players recognize it. Players connect the spoken phrase with one visible target. Meiji University Museum describes a familiar card design combining an image with its initial character enclosed in a circle.
Iroha refers to the traditional Iroha poem and its kana sequence. Tamagawa University’s museum describes a familiar arrangement that adds kyō, 京, at the end to make forty-eight entries. The sequence orders the openings of the phrases; it does not assign one permanent proverb to every opening.
A named Daiso product contains forty-eight reading cards and forty-eight picture cards, plus three spares and an audio-guide card. Its matching cards therefore total ninety-six, with separate extras. A number printed on a box or used in a catalogue needs to be read in relation to what is being counted.
Daiso’s instructions call for at least three people, including one reader. Picture cards are laid face up. The reader calls a phrase; the others find its partner, say hai and tap it. The person who taps takes the card. Play continues until none remain, and the largest collection wins. These are the rules of this particular product.
Tamagawa and Mizuho museums compare an Edo opening about a dog encountering a stick with the Kamigata saying Issun saki wa yami, about the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Both occupy the i position. Kamigata here refers to the Kyoto–Osaka cultural region. Recognizing the initial alone does not identify the full wording.
Tamagawa contrasts Ron yori shōko, evidence over argument, with Rongo yomi no Rongo shirazu, reading the Analects without understanding them. Identifying a set involves looking at both its initials and its actual phrases. Regional comparisons reveal choices among sayings, rather than a single immutable deck for each place.
Mizuho Museum discusses a Shōwa-period set that follows ron yori shōko with wara ningyō, straw doll. That added wording points listeners toward the figure on the taking card. The curator calls such a prompt a torase-kotoba: words that help players take the card. The audible cue can be more concrete than the proverb alone.
Meiji University Museum describes proverb-card predecessors with fifty or more phrases. Some openings repeat, while other kana have no corresponding phrase. Gathering a selection of proverbs and arranging a complete sequence of initials are different ways to organize a set.
The museum describes Kamigata and Edo families from the later Edo period. It also distinguishes sets choosing new proverbs and others mixing existing selections. Kamigata combinations were particularly varied. A shared iroha framework leaves room for publishers to select and rearrange the verbal contents.
Tamagawa holds a school-geography set made in 1934 and a national-history set made in 1938. Its explanation describes forty-seven entries aligned with the elementary curriculum of their time, turning geography or history into short, memorable phrases. These objects reflect particular educational aims and show related card forms carrying material beyond proverbs.
Mizuho compares a traditional he saying about taking action too late with Heta no yokozuki, enthusiasm for something one does poorly, in another set. The curator links the replacement to avoiding the older expression’s coarse wording and tentatively dates that set after the war from its writing direction. This is a change traced through particular objects.
Meiji’s exhibition describes a revival around 1973–1974 that included adult interest in older iroha karuta. It also distinguishes local-history, literary, educational and character-themed cards. The reading-and-taking format can carry different subjects; these neighboring forms do not all constitute traditional proverb decks.
The Daiso product described above provides an audio guide for the readings and explains the proverbs on its reading cards. Additional material changes how players obtain the spoken phrases and their meanings, while matching a phrase to a picture remains central. Looking at a set means considering its selected words, pictured subjects and arrangements for the reader.
One supplies a phrase to be read aloud; players find and take its matching picture card.
Different sets or regions can select different proverbs beginning with that sound.
Forty-eight, making ninety-six matching cards in all, with separate spare and audio-guide cards.
The paired-card form could carry subjects from the curriculum of its time, beyond a traditional selection of proverbs.
It adds a more concrete spoken cue to help players identify the corresponding picture card.