Palaun Hanahuda: The Cards, the rules, and the yaks

Hanahuda, the Palaun flower game

Palauns play a card game named hanahuda derived from a variant of the Japanese game, hanafuda. The game play is the same, but the scoring is slightly different.

The cards The rules The scoring

The Cards

The cards are divided into the twelve months of the year, incorporating the kachoufuugetsu (four beauties of nature: flowers, birds, wind, and moon).

January matsu ni tsuru Crane Among Pines
February ume ni uguisu Nightingale Among Plum Trees
March sakura ni tobari Curtain Among Cherry Blossoms
April fuji ni hototogisu Cuckoo Among Wisteria
May ayame ni yatsuhashi Zigzag Bridge Among Irises
June botan ni chou Butterfly Among Peonies
July hagi ni inoshishi Wild Boar Among Bush Clover
August susuki ni tsuki - kari Moon Over Pampas Grass - Wild Geese
September kiku ni sakazuki Cup Among Crysanthemums
October momiji ni shika Deer Among Maple - Autumn Colours
November ono michi-kaze - ni kaeru - yanagi ni tsubame Frog Among Fields - Swallow Among Willows
December kiri ni houou Phoenix Among Paulownia

The rules

Non-dealer cuts the cards, and gets to see the bottom card. The dealer places 10 face up in the middle and then ten to each player (9 if 3 players, 8 if 4). The left-over cards are placed in a face-down stack in the middle of the table with the face-up cards scattered around the stack. In the four player game, players on opposite sides of the table are a team. Players alternate. On a turn, first a player plays a card from hand, capturing a face-up card if it shares a month with the played card. Otherwise the played card is added to the face-up collection. The same player then draws the top stack card and attempts to capture a face-up card. If no capture is possible the card is just added to the face-up collection. The action of playing the top stack card is called omkais. Dealing is called omerous.

The yaks

To score, players must collect various combinations of the cards.
The Japanese calls these combos yaku, the Palauns call them yaks.

Hanami ippai Flower watching one cup	150
Tsukimi ippai Moon watching one cup	150
Teppo	300
Akatan Three of the red ribbons (but not November)	100
Aotan The three purple ribbons	150
Kosan The three poetry ribbons	150
Nizoro The only yak comprised from a single month	200
Ino-shika-cho Boar, deer, butterfly	300
Oozan (Ume-match-sakura) great three	300
Matsu-kiri-bôzu (match-kiri-bo) crane paulownia bald head	300
Ume-match-kiri-bo This may be a regional variation beteen different Palaun villages	400
Matsu plus sakura (skok)	500
Matsu plus sakura plus big Nizoro the big five	700
Arazi Matsu plus plus plus	1000
Nana-tang Any seven ribbons	700
Big score All tens	10000