Karuta

Karuta are Japanese playing cards, and the name comes from the Portuguese word carta, meaning card. Playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders during the mid-16th century, and the earliest indigenous karuta were made in the town of Miike in Chikugo Province at around the end of the 16th century. The Miike Karuta Memorial Hall in Omuta, Fukuoka, is the only municipal museum in Japan dedicated specifically to the history of karuta. Karuta packs fall into two groups, those descended from Portuguese-suited playing cards and those from e-awase, which began as shell-matching kai-awase and was converted to card format in the early 17th century. The basic idea of any e-awase game is to spot the required card among those laid out and grab it before an opponent does, and it is often played by schoolchildren as an educational exercise.