Hanafuda

Old 任天堂 playing cards

January 2026

This is not exactly a programming project. But I kinda want to start documenting other things I work on, research, and make here. Plus who knows, maybe this will become a programming project eventually.

2 Souvenir Decks of Cards

Taipei

I spent New Years Eve going into 2026 in Taipei. The party I attended handed out a deck of cards with the bar’s name branded on it.

At home the next day I opened the pack to find they were not a standard deck of playing cards, but a collection of seemingly loosely related pictures.

I had no idea what they were and not a lot of jumping off points to find out (I easily could have reverse Google image searched, but leaving room in life for mysteries is more fun).

Tokyo

On the way back from Taiwan we decided to spend some time in Tokyo. One of the activities I was looking forward to most was an antique market in Oedo.

There amongst the various fabrics, wooden dolls and old posters I found a man selling unopened Nintendo cards “from before they made video games.” Since I like Nintendo and Pokemon cards and I wanted a souvenir I didn’t think too hard about it, and bought a pack.

Only later when I looked up what it was I purchased did I realize I this was an older set of the same cards I was given on New Years Eve. These cards were for a game called Hanafuda.

What is Hanafuda?

So in a span of two weeks I went from not knowing what Hanafuda is to owning three decks of Hanafuda cards. I figured I should probably look up what they are. I also figured I should find out how old/rare the pack I just bought was.

Origins

Hanafuda traces its origins all the way back to a game called Mono-awase, which is essentially show-and-tell for rich people. They would compete by describing the objects they owned like shells or fans in poems or song. I totally dig this, and you should read these articles about it if you’re interested:

• Sakuraco: How to Play Hanafuda-Traditional Japanese Playing Cards
• Ways to Play: The History & Art of Hanafuda

Nintendo

Now I knew Nintendo was a game company long before they started making video games, I guess I just never considered what kinds of games they might have made. Nintendo started as a playing card company in 1889.

My Pack of Cards

So this deck of cards I have was made sometime between 1889, when Nintendo was founded, and January 19th 2026, when I bought them. A solid start, but can we narrow that down?

1889 - 2026

I brought the deck to the card experts at a Pokemon store near my office. It was worth a shot but they didn’t know. They encouraged me not to open them.

I wanted to open them.

So I told myself that if the cards were older than 1950-ish, they’d stay sealed. Any younger than that and I’d open them. So I started Googling.

The first thing I found were listings on Ebay. A pack that looked same as mine goes for about $30 (which means I could flip them and make like $15, what a score). This price tag meant they probably were not that old, and even if they were, they are not that rare. +1 in favor of opening them.

I found this article which revealed my cards are a Miyako No Hana set, the set without a political ruler on the front that was sold for cheaper. The box my cards came in is clear on top and red on the bottom, which means it’s older than 2014 (both would be clear if it was more recent than that).

1889 - 2014

I then found a Reddit post where someone had the same question. A response had this spreadsheet which has details about each of the cards. Mine had a pink stamp on the bottom placing it sometime between 1960 and 1976. Nintendo also starting printing their name as just Nintendo in 1963, and mine says just Nintendo in the copyright text.

1963 - 1976

So this deck looks like was made in the 60’s or 70’s, which is cool, but not historic by any means. So they’re getting opened.

Once opened, I found a card with a number printed on it. 261047 which could suggest 26th of October 1947. But I doubt it because I haven’t found anything that says there would be a date card in the pack and the stamp doesn’t look like the one that would be on it if it was from the 40’s.

My Card Display

Since the cards are 12 sets of 4, one for each month. I decided to keep each month together. I laid them out in two columns of 4 cards starting with January in the top right, down to July in the bottom right, then continuing with August down to December on the left. It works out great that January and August both depict the sun on a card.

I also wanted to keep the packaging on display as well.