Hanafuda and Koi-Koi
Hanafuda is a deck of 48 cards depicting the plants and seasonal motifs of twelve months. In Koi-Koi, cards of the same month match, and captured cards form scoring combinations called yaku.
Hanafuda supports several games. This site offers two-player Koi-Koi, where a completed yaku gives you a choice to stop and score or continue. Yaku values and scoring conventions vary; the following describes the rules used here, which follow Nintendo’s published Koi-Koi rules.
What is in the deck
Twelve months, four cards each. The mix differs by month, but every card is one of four kinds:
| Kind | Count | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Brights (光 hikari) | 5 | Cards used for Bright yaku: Crane, Curtain, Moon, Rainman, Phoenix |
| Animals (種 tane) | 9 | Cards showing a creature or an object |
| Ribbons (短冊 tanzaku) | 10 | Poetry slips: 3 red-with-writing, 3 blue, 4 plain red |
| Chaff (カス kasu) | 24 | Cards outside the Brights, Animals and Ribbons |
The twelve months
Learning which plant belongs to which month is the fastest route into the deck.
| Month | Plant | Special cards |
|---|---|---|
| January | Pine | Bright: Crane · Poetry ribbon |
| February | Plum blossom | Animal: Bush warbler · Poetry ribbon |
| March | Cherry blossom | Bright: Curtain · Poetry ribbon |
| April | Wisteria | Animal: Cuckoo |
| May | Iris | Animal: Eight-plank bridge |
| June | Peony | Animal: Butterflies · Blue ribbon |
| July | Bush clover | Animal: Boar |
| August | Pampas grass | Bright: Moon · Animal: Geese |
| September | Chrysanthemum | Animal: Sake cup · Blue ribbon |
| October | Maple | Animal: Deer · Blue ribbon |
| November | Willow | Bright: Rainman · Animal: Swallow · Plain ribbon · Lightning |
| December | Paulownia | Bright: Phoenix |
How a round plays
The deal
- Eight cards to each player's hand
- Eight cards face up on the table — this is the field (場 ba)
- The remaining twenty-four form the face-down draw pile
If four cards of the same month land on the field, the hand is redealt.
For the first round, each player turns up one card and the earlier month becomes the dealer (a tie is redrawn). The dealer plays first.
A turn, in two steps
Every turn is the same two steps, always in this order:
- Play one card from your hand. If the field holds a card of the same month, take both and add them to your capture pile. If nothing matches, your card stays on the field.
- Flip the top card of the draw pile. Same rule — match and take both, or leave it on the field.
Matching happens once for the played card and once for the drawn card. If two field cards match, choose one. If three cards of that month are on the field, take all three together with the played or drawn fourth card.
When you make a yaku
The instant your capture pile completes a yaku, you must choose:
- STOP (勝負 shōbu) — stop. Score your yaku and win the round.
- KOI-KOI (こいこい) — carry on. More yaku means more points, but if your opponent then makes a yaku, you score nothing — and their score doubles.
After a koi-koi, the next yaku either player forms — including a higher total on an existing one — ends the round in that player’s favour. There is no second koi-koi.
If the yaku comes on the very last turn, with both hands empty, koi-koi is not offered: you can only stop.
Ending a round
The round ends when somebody stops, when a yaku is made after a koi-koi, or when both hands run out. If both hands empty with no yaku, it is a no-game: nobody scores and the deal passes to the other player.
The winner of a round deals the next. After the agreed number of rounds the higher total wins the match. Single player defaults to the standard 12 rounds (3 and 6 are also offered); online matches are 12 rounds too.
The yaku
Bright yaku — only the best one counts
| Yaku | Points | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Five Brights (Gokō 五光) | 10 | All five Brights |
| Four Brights (Shikō 四光) | 8 | Four Brights, not the Rainman |
| Rainy Four Brights (Ame-Shikō 雨四光) | 7 | Four Brights including the Rainman |
| Three Brights (Sankō 三光) | 5 | Three Brights, not the Rainman |
Combination yaku
| Yaku | Points | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Boar, Deer, Butterfly (Ino-Shika-Chō 猪鹿蝶) | 5+ | Boar, Deer and Butterflies; +1 for each further Animal |
| Red Poetry Ribbons (Akatan 赤短) | 5+ | The three red poetry ribbons (Pine, Plum, Cherry); +1 for each further Ribbon |
| Blue Ribbons (Aotan 青短) | 5+ | The three blue ribbons (Peony, Chrysanthemum, Maple); +1 for each further Ribbon |
| Red and Blue Ribbons (赤短・青短の重複) | 10+ | All six of them, counted instead of Red Poetry Ribbons and Blue Ribbons; +1 for each further Ribbon |
| Flower Viewing (Hanami-zake 花見で一杯) | 5 | Cherry Curtain + Sake Cup |
| Moon Viewing (Tsukimi-zake 月見で一杯) | 5 | Moon + Sake Cup |
Count yaku
| Yaku | Points | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Animals (Tane 種) | 1+ | Five Animals for 1, plus 1 for each extra (not counted alongside Boar, Deer, Butterfly) |
| Ribbons (Tan タン) | 1+ | Five Ribbons for 1, plus 1 for each extra (not counted alongside Red Poetry Ribbons or Blue Ribbons) |
| Chaff (Kasu カス) | 1+ | Ten Chaff for 1, plus 1 for each extra (the Sake Cup counts as Chaff too) |
Boar, Deer, Butterfly, Red Poetry Ribbons and Blue Ribbons gain a point for every further card of their kind, and the Animals or Ribbons yaku is then not counted, so no card is paid twice. Red Poetry Ribbons with two more Ribbons (five in all) is seven points. The Sake Cup counts as both an Animal and a Chaff; Chaff, the Bright yaku and the viewing yaku stack with everything else.
Hand yaku — scored from the deal
| Yaku | Points | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Four of a Month (Teshi 手四) | 6 | Four cards of one month in your dealt hand |
| Four Pairs (Kuttsuki くっつき) | 6 | Your eight cards form four same-month pairs |
A hand yaku ends the round immediately, before anyone plays, and its holder wins. If both players are dealt one, the dealer’s counts.
Working out the score
The round winner — the player who stops, or who makes a yaku after a koi-koi — scores in this order:
- Add up every yaku (Brights: only the highest one)
- Seven points or more doubles the total
- If your opponent had called koi-koi, double it again
Three Brights (5) plus five Ribbons (1) is six points, and stays six. One more Ribbon makes it seven — and therefore fourteen. The step between six and seven is enormous, and is one factor to consider when deciding whether to call koi-koi.
Vocabulary worth keeping
- Dealer (親 oya) — the player who plays first. Decided by turning up a card in round one (the earlier month deals), then the previous round's winner; a no-game passes it across
- Field (場 ba) — the face-up cards on the table
- Deck (山札 yamafuda) — the face-down draw pile
- Captured cards (取り札 torifuda) — your capture pile, where yaku are formed
- pts (文 mon) — the unit points are counted in
Frequently asked questions
How do you match Hanafuda cards?
The plant painted on the card is its suit — it identifies the month. You capture by matching cards of the same month. This site adds a small month number in the corner to help you identify each card.
Should I choose KOI-KOI or STOP?
Consider both capture piles, remaining cards, possible yaku and the match score, as well as this site’s doubling rule at seven points. No score or hand-size threshold gives the right answer in every position.
Do Five Brights and Three Brights both count?
No. Only the highest bright yaku counts. Five Brights scores 10, not 10 plus the 5 for the Three Brights inside it.
What is the "rain" card?
The November Bright, the Rainman. Four Brights including it scores 7 (Rainy Four Brights) rather than 8, and it is excluded from the Three Brights yaku entirely.
How many rounds is a game?
Traditionally twelve, one for each month, though six and three are common. On Yamato.com single player defaults to 12 and also offers 3 or 6; online matches are 12 rounds too.
Try it against the AI Try it in the interactive lessons Read the tutorial