Cerulean
A 20th-21st century rediscovery of this Unsun Karuta pack
Summary of discovery of the game/card pack
...When Japanese and Western playing card historians began their study of Japanese cards in the 2nd quarter of the 20th century, they were able to locate several examples of Unsun cards, but were uable to learn how the game was played...then in 1972 there was considerable news-magazine and television publicity in Japan about ten old gentlemen in Hitoyoshi City, Kyushu, who still occassionally met for a game of Unsun...game survived longest on the island where playing cards were first introduced some 300 years (as of the 1981 booklet) earlier....these players were artisans who had learned the game from their elders and felt no need for written instructions...
...Waylands visited Hitoshiyoshi in 1973..after watching an evning of play, they were the first to recognize that the game as played there, was definitely based on European games which were current in the 16th century, such as Hombre and tarocchi...however the introduction of 3 additional court cards, of simple numeral one to replace the Dragon Ace and addition of a fifth suit, the Kuru suit, were all unique Japanese innovations...
...Mr. Kanji Tsurukami, a high school teacher in Hitoshiyoshi, who acted acted as the Waylands interpreter...spearheaded the work...to preserve the game and make packs of unsun karuta available...(Cerulean's paraphrase: originally the cards the ten elderly gentlemen used ws made by Oishi Tengudo of Kyoto. The original designer died over 50 years previous to 1972...Mr. Tsurukami made his own drawings based on the Oishi Tengudo pack and 1500 printed by Kyowa Print in Hitoyoshi City...).
from Unsun Karuta, copyright 1981, by Virginia and Harald Wayland
The Screenfold Press is selling the 85 packs and booklet remaining from the Waylands estate; Alan Ferg and the Wayland's daughters make up the Screenfold Press.
Best wishes,
Cerulean
Summary of discovery of the game/card pack
...When Japanese and Western playing card historians began their study of Japanese cards in the 2nd quarter of the 20th century, they were able to locate several examples of Unsun cards, but were uable to learn how the game was played...then in 1972 there was considerable news-magazine and television publicity in Japan about ten old gentlemen in Hitoyoshi City, Kyushu, who still occassionally met for a game of Unsun...game survived longest on the island where playing cards were first introduced some 300 years (as of the 1981 booklet) earlier....these players were artisans who had learned the game from their elders and felt no need for written instructions...
...Waylands visited Hitoshiyoshi in 1973..after watching an evning of play, they were the first to recognize that the game as played there, was definitely based on European games which were current in the 16th century, such as Hombre and tarocchi...however the introduction of 3 additional court cards, of simple numeral one to replace the Dragon Ace and addition of a fifth suit, the Kuru suit, were all unique Japanese innovations...
...Mr. Kanji Tsurukami, a high school teacher in Hitoshiyoshi, who acted acted as the Waylands interpreter...spearheaded the work...to preserve the game and make packs of unsun karuta available...(Cerulean's paraphrase: originally the cards the ten elderly gentlemen used ws made by Oishi Tengudo of Kyoto. The original designer died over 50 years previous to 1972...Mr. Tsurukami made his own drawings based on the Oishi Tengudo pack and 1500 printed by Kyowa Print in Hitoyoshi City...).
from Unsun Karuta, copyright 1981, by Virginia and Harald Wayland
The Screenfold Press is selling the 85 packs and booklet remaining from the Waylands estate; Alan Ferg and the Wayland's daughters make up the Screenfold Press.
Best wishes,
Cerulean
