Sakura (card game)

Sakura, also known as Higobana, is a Hawaiian fishing-style card game played with a hanafuda deck, the flower-suited playing cards originally brought to Hawaii from Japan. As a fishing and matching game, players capture cards from a shared layout by pairing cards of the same monthly suit from their hand, building scoring combinations from the resulting captured cards much like related hanafuda games such as Koi-Koi. The game supports a flexible number of participants, with its dealing pattern accommodating anywhere from two up to seven players, making it adaptable for both small and larger social gatherings. Sakura reflects the long history of hanafuda card games within Hawaii's local card-playing culture, carrying forward Japanese card traditions that were adapted into a distinctly Hawaiian pastime over generations.