Sakura

Sakura 桜 ▶ cherry blossoms is a hanafuda game for 2–7 players. The goal is to match and capture cards to score points and form yaku 役 ▶ set to subtract points from your opponent(s).

Sakura is an intermediate-level game, with unique card values and yaku.

Cards

Hanafuda § Cards

This game uses a 48-card hanafuda deck.

If you’re using a Junior Hanafuda deck, be sure to set aside its extra cards.

Setup

Shuffle the deck and deal cards to each player and to the field according to the following table.

Place the remaining deck adjacent to the field.

If all four cards of a single month are dealt into the field, shuffle and start over.

If all four cards of a single month are dealt into a player’s hand, they instantly win the round, scoring 5 points!

Choose a player to begin.

Gameplay

Goal

The goal of Sakura is to match and capture cards from your hand with cards in the field to score points and form three-card yaku to subtract points from your opponent(s).

Your Turn

When your turn begins, try to match a card from your hand with a card from the same month in the field.

If you find a match, you capture these cards. Place both cards face-up in front of you.

If you find two matches, you may only capture one of them with the card you introduced to the field. However, if the card matches three cards in the field, you may capture all four.

If all four cards from a month are among the cards your hand and the field, you may capture all four. This is called hiki 引き ▶ to draw.

If you cannot make a match, you must surrender a card from your hand into the field.

Your captured cards are displayed face-up in front of you, away from the field. It’s best to organize them by rank (Hikari, Tane, Tanzaku, Kasu) rather than by month.

If you captured an entire month, you will have fewer cards in your hand for the remainder of the round. After depleting your hand, you may only play the following portion of your turn.

Next, draw a card from the deck into the field, following the same pattern as above.

After playing from your hand and playing from the deck, your turn is over. Now it’s the next player’s turn.

Continue until all cards are depleted.

Scoring

At the end of the round, each player tallies the points of their captured cards according to the following table. For this game, the Rainman is scored as a Tane card (5 points), and the shaded Paulownia Kasu is scored as a Tanzaku card (10 points). All Kasu are 0 points.

Yaku

Then, each player subtracts 50 points from their subtotal for every yaku their opponent(s) have formed. The result is their score for this round.

			い：Viewings Curtain, Moon, Sake		50
			ろ：Spring Crane, Warbler, Curtain		50
			は：Akatan 3 Poetry Tanzaku		50
			に：Aotan 3 Blue Tanzaku		50
			ほ Butterflies, Sake, Deer		50
			へ：Kusatan 3 Plain Tanzaku, excluding November Tanzaku		50
			と Cuckoo, Bridge, Boar		50
			ち Boar, Geese, Deer		50

Series

Games are best played in a series of 3, 6, or 12 rounds. The player with the highest total score at the end of the series wins!

If the players have identical scores, rejoice in the shared victory!

Strategy

Sakura has a unique point system, where the value of Tane and Tanzaku is flipped. And Kasu aren’t worth anything. So if you’re familiar with another hanafuda game, you may need to recalibrate. Kasu are only worth capturing with a more valuable card, and Tanzaku might be more sought-after.

Four cards are found in two yaku each: Curtain, Boar, Sake, and Deer. But before you start scheming to capture two yaku with that information, understand that the loss of one of those cards means the lost potential for both of its yaku.

Variations

The Willow Kasu—also known as the Lightning card—may be used as a wild card.

If in the field, it is captured only with another card from the November month.

If played, it can pair and capture with any card in the field.

If the card attempting to be captured with the wild card disrupts another player’s hiki, that player must interrupt and capture that entire month immediately.

If an orphaned card remains in the field at the end of the round from the same month captured with the wild card, the player who captured the wild card may also capture the orphaned card.

Related

See also

• Hanafuda
• Junior Hanafuda
• Junior

Purchase