Japanese kabufuda Deck. Angel, Kyoto, Japan. Regular deck, Japanese, 41 cards. Size: 32mm x 53mm.
Deck make-up:
Suit of clubs: 1-9, jack (four copies of each; one copy of each of the 1 and 4 has a different design).
Extras: blank spare card.
During the mid-18th century, Japanese tastes in card games began to change from those which required suits that allowed for trumping (as per ombre and bridge) or matching, to those more along the baccarat line (where the object is to get a numeric total closest to nine). Decks with four suits were thus no longer deemed necessary and so the established mekuri patterns mutated into decks with four copies of the same suit (instead of one copy each of four different suits).
Two of the mekuri suits were borrowed for these new single-suited decks: coins formed patterns known as mame, and clubs / batons as kabu *.
(* Confusingly, "kabu" also sometimes functions as an overall designation for both of the single-suited mekuri derivatives, i.e. the clubs / batons suit and the coins (mame) suit. Here I use it to mean just the clubs / batons type, for clarity.)
Kabu patterns – single-suited decks using the clubs / batons suit – have either 40 cards (i.e. ten ranks, with ranks 1-9 and one court card) or an older arrangement with 48 cards (i.e. twelve ranks, with ranks 1-9 and three courts); a deck having four copies of each rank. When there is a single court, it can either be a Western-style court or a Japanese-style court; when there are three courts, they are always Japanese in style.
For what seems to be a long-lost reason, in just one of the four runs of the ranks, certain values are picked out for special alterations to their design. Depending on kabu pattern, this can be just the 1; the 1 and 4; or the 1, 3 and 4.
An incomplete list of kabu pattern names is (in alphabetical order): hosonokichi, irinokichi, kabufuda, kinseizan. The kabufuda pattern still survives and is readily available; the other patterns seem to have died out by around the middle of the 20th century. It should be pointed out that, unlike with mekuri patterns, the differences between the kabu patterns is fairly slight – the main difference between packs being the court cards, as mentioned above:
Kabufuda cards are used for gambling games such as oicho-kabu, which is similar to baccarat where players add up the numbers and compete based on the size and strength of the cards.
As stated, the only kabu pattern still available is kabufuda and this is still widely marketed as a current gameplay deck, unlike all of the mekuri and mame patterns. These decks have one court, of Western style.
Click on any card to explore the design.
(Comments or corrections, please e-mail: Click to see e-mail address.)
Card image size, below:
The first set of cards are the three regular runs; the latter two cards are the special versions of the 1 and 4.
The "Thermos flask" shape on the 1s is common to all kabu designs.
The cross on the court isn't just a random flag – it is the Japanese symbol for 10.
