Carpe Diem #646, Card Games (Karuta)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure and joy to bring you an all new episode of our daily haiku meme Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. We are exploring the classical kigo (seasonwords) of the fifth season, New Year, and today we have Card Games (Karuta) for prompt.
Maybe you can remember a new feature which I introduced last April, Carpe Diem's Pick Up The Pieces Uta Garuta. It was all about a kind of card game in which the goal was to put the lines of haiku or tanka (waka) together. Uta Garuta is a card game which is especially for the New Year's season. That card game is the theme for today. So if you want to know more about Card Games (Karuta) maybe you can re-visit that special episode by clicking on the above link.

Credits: Uta Garuta cards

Uta Garuta is a tough game and it's THE way to learn all the wonderful haiku and tanka written in ancient (and Modern) Japan. It's also THE wonderful task every child in Japan has to fulfill, because the art of poetry is very important in Japan and the Japanese cherish their history in poetry as a treasure.

Around New Year there are several contests in which this game, Uta Garuta, is played.

Uta Garuta contest
tears are falling continuously
she has blacked out

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a strong haiku, but it gives you an idea how important it is to the Japanese to know their classical poetry masters.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 14th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Lion Dance (Shishimai), later on. For now .... have fun!