Playing card (east asian)
East Asian playing cards were developed in China independently of and earlier than their European counterparts. The typical shape is a very long vertical rectangle, often with a rounded top and bottom.
China
history
One learns from a source from the 11th century that the card game emerged in the middle of the Tang period, probably in the 7th or 8th century. The connection between pieces such as dominoes and mah-jongg is close in China. Mahjong, in particular, is often played with tablets.
The theory that the colored bricks from the 1st century in the Boston Museum are playing cards cannot be scientifically proven.
The oldest evidence is the Turfan map , which, according to the circumstances of the find , can be dated to the 11th century.
With the playing cards of the 17th century - called yeh-tzu or yeh-ko - three elements can be singled out: 1) the literary quotation; 2) the drinking instructions; 3) the game colors and thus the card values in the form of the denominations in the form of coin values.
Types
Theater Playing Cards : These are of a type known as a Chiu-p'ai . In the upper third there is a quote from a play, in the lower area the corresponding scenic representation.
There is detailed information from the Ming period (17th century). It is known from illustrations that these cards showed literary scenes from plays or characters from fiction. These are woodcuts that were printed in blue on white cotton paper and glued onto cardboard. Drinking instructions are written on the card image.
Title playing cards had four colors, namely Wén (civil), Wu (military), K'o (science) and Yüan (teaching), each with 9 values, each of which corresponded to a title within the areas. It is the mapping of the administrative hierarchy from the highest court offices to the base.
Playing cards are the most popular type. The play value is indicated by a more or less long coin string . In many cases there is also a literary representation, often from folk novels or legends. From the 18th century there are three- and four-color games of the money system.
Korea
Korean maps are not well known and therefore hardly explored. The Korean word for playing card means, according to Prunner, "combat tablet". Games typically consist of 60 or 80 cards; H. 6 (8) series of 9 cards each with the values 1–9 and 6 (8) generals ( cang ) with the value 10. The denominations are strongly stylized, but strikingly stereotypical. There is usually a characteristic feather motif on the back. In the past, the mostly long, narrow cards were mostly printed on oil paper or leather.
Hwatu correspond to the Japanese flower cards, with the difference that the months of November and December are swapped.
Japan
→ Main article: Karuta
There are two major playing card traditions in Japan:
Awase type
The Awase type, i.e. H. Puzzle games, is the older, purely Japanese tradition, like the Kai-Awase from the 12th century of the late Heian period .
As in China, initially only educated cards seem to have played. The representations on the cards also relate to novels and plays. One card has the top line of a poem, the corresponding second card the lower part. This principle of the union of two parts is applied to all areas of poetry, e.g. B. also on proverbs. Such card games could therefore also serve didactic purposes.
Verse or verse composition games are the forerunners of the "Hundred Poets Cards" ( Hyakunin Isshu Karuta ) , in which in the upper part of the Waka collection of poems from the classical period (7th to 13th centuries) a steeple with 17 syllables (and often the picture of the poet) were depicted. The matching card showed the rest of the poem (with 14 syllables). As with European quartets, cards have to be put together, but in Japan only to form a duet. This is popular as Uta-Garuta with the poems and poets from the anthology Hyakunin Isshu .
The very small "flower cards" ( Hanafuda ) that are widespread today are derived from this . These consist of 2 series of 48 sheets each, one of which is brown on the edge and on the back, the other is black. The 12 colors of the game correspond to the 12 months. Each color has 4 values, which are identified by the respective motif - birds or flowers - for the respective month. Furthermore, each card has a point value. These games are mainly played on New Years Day.
Tenshō-karuta
Tenshō-Karuta is the name of the type that emerged under Portuguese influence from the 16th century and is named after the era in which it was introduced. Based on the Italian Trionfi cards, the European suit symbols were introduced. A first ban on playing the shogunate is known from 1597. The Japanese word for playing cards, karuta , comes from the Portuguese word carte .
Species derived from this and still common today are Mekuri-karuta and Kabu-karuta.
Western card games have been popular since the Meiji era. These are usually called "trump cards" ( ト ラ ン プ Toranpu ) to distinguish them. Japanese cards were first printed on plastic cards in 1953.
literature
- Juergen Berndt: Hyakunin isshu. A hundred poems by a hundred poets . Ruetten & Loening, Berlin, 1986
- John. Imm. Gottlieb Breitkopf: Try to research the origin of playing cards . Leipzig 1784 [Vol 1], 1801 (Roch) [Vol 2]; 2 Vol .: First part, which contains the playing cards and the linen paper, 136S; Second part, which is a history of writing as well as the art of writing ..., 216 pp. 4 °; reprint: Leipzig 1975 (Central Antiquariat of the GDR); Munich 1985 (Saur); [First mention of Asian maps in Europe in Volume I]
- Stewart Culin [1858-1929]: Games of Corea . Philadelphia 1895 (Uni. Of Pennsylvania); udT: Games of the Orient: Korea, China, Japan . Tōkyō u. a. 1895, 1958 (Tuttle); reprint udT: Korean Games; with notes on the corresponding games of China & Japan . Dover, New York 1991, ISBN 0-8048-1695-6
- M. von Faber: Beschrijving van drie chineesche kaartspelen . In: Tijdschrift voor indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde , Deel XXVI. Batavia / s'Hage 1881
- John Fairbairn: 18th Century Cardmakers in Japan . Trad. from Saiga Shokunin Burui, 1784. In: IPCS , XV / 2, p. 35
- John Fairbairn: The Distribution of Japanese Mekuri Cards . In: IPCS , XVI / 3, p. 87
- John Fairbairn: The Japanese Literature Unsun Cards . In: IPCS , XII / 3, p. 65
- Detlef Hoffmann ; The world of the playing card - a cultural history . 2nd Edition. Hugendubel, Munich 1972, 1983, pp. 52-54, 96 p .; en. Ex .: The Playing card . NY 1973
- Gernot Prunner: East Asian playing cards [exhibition catalog 1969/70]; Bielefeld 1969 (German Playing Card Museum), 149 pp.
- Harald Wayland, Virginia Wayland: Japanese Playing Cards . In: IPCS , special edition IV / 4, sect. III / p. 1-21
- Yamaguchi Kakutaro: History of Huyakunin-isshu = Japanese poem cards . Lecture 1978. German 2 p. Special print, from IPCS X / 4, p. 131
- K. Yasuda (ex.): Poem Card (The Hyakunin isshu , English); Tokyo 1948
- JW Young: Bijdrage tot de kennis der Chineesche hazard- en kaartspelen . In: Tijdschrift voor indische taal-, land- en volkunde , Deel XXXI. Batavia / s'Hage 1886
(IPCS = International Playing Card Society)
Web links
- Peter Endebrock's playing card pages
- What is the hyakunin-isshu?
- The different types of Chinese cards
- Playing Cards: Korea (English)
- Playing Cards: Japan (English)
- Chinese Playing Cards (English)
- Karuta: Sports or Culture?
- China Playing Card Museum (Chinese / English; Fig.)
