Cerulean
...here's hoping I get permission to copy a wonderful post that someone kindly made reference...
I can at least post a link to what Hana Fuda is...which was derived from a kind of 52-54 card Portugese gambling card game said to have been at the Nagasaki port--maybe tarock-style, but likely more similar to playing card suits that was disguised and morphed under repressive restrictions in Japan (no Western foreign interaction) into a very Asian game of flowers, birds, and seasonal motifs.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/pd49/pockets/games/hanacard.htm
Similar poetry card or shell games exist in old Japanese culture and as some have said, it's an old fashioned custom that might be hard to find outside of schools--it might not even be known among the overseas descendents of such families.
I can at least post a link to what Hana Fuda is...which was derived from a kind of 52-54 card Portugese gambling card game said to have been at the Nagasaki port--maybe tarock-style, but likely more similar to playing card suits that was disguised and morphed under repressive restrictions in Japan (no Western foreign interaction) into a very Asian game of flowers, birds, and seasonal motifs.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/pd49/pockets/games/hanacard.htm
Similar poetry card or shell games exist in old Japanese culture and as some have said, it's an old fashioned custom that might be hard to find outside of schools--it might not even be known among the overseas descendents of such families.