LIHU‘E — Helen Nakano said she became involved in hanafuda, a Japanese card game, to be able to connect with her granddaughter. With only one granddaughter, Nakano said she discovered that a lot of the people who know how to
LIHU‘E — Helen Nakano said she became involved in hanafuda, a Japanese card game, to be able to connect with her granddaughter.
With only one granddaughter, Nakano said she discovered that a lot of the people who know how to play the card game learned from their grandmothers.
Dating back to the plantation era, the card game was passed from generation to generation by grandmothers who had to watch children because the children’s mothers worked in the plantation fields and canneries.
Even though there was bad stigma surrounding hanafuda in Japan where the card game was associated with yakuza and gambling, the game was nonetheless handed down to the next generation. Hawai‘i’s people used it as a means of family gathering and playing together, Nakano said.
“I’m here to ‘hook’ all of you seniors,” Nakano said. “If you teach the game to at least one young person, I’ve become a step closer to my goal of having a lot of young people learn the game so it won’t get lost.”
Melanie Okamoto of the Parks and Recreation Department said this is the second workshop Nakano has led for the department and based on the turnout, is hopeful the department can create a tournament where young people become involved with the kupuna.
“We sold out of a whole case of hanafuda cards,” Okamoto said. “We ordered another case and have people on the wait list so they can get theirs when the shipment arrives.”
The unique Japanese card game, like its Western counterpart of playing cards, has a similar background of being an almanac, reference book, and prayer book, the history being presented by Nakano, whom Naoko Ho, president of the Waimea Senior Center, said taught at Waimea High School for a period.
“I didn’t realize I looked that young,” Nakano said when presented with a copy of the Waimea yearbook. “I have students here today who taught with me at Waimea, and I even have a student from Waimea.”
Nakano said she used her family’s talents to help develop the Japanese cards, and has the aid of two volunteers to help spread the knowledge on how to play the game.
“I first got started by buying a book from Amazon, and I never realized how much I learned by reading that book,” she said. “I created my own book, which comes with the cards and it shows you how to play hanafuda, ‘local style.’”
Okamoto said in addition to the many people who were attracted to the workshop by their knowledge of the game, there were many more who came to find out more and learn how to play.
“This is really what we wanted,” Okamoto said. “We have people from Princeville to Kekaha, and a lot of people who are not part of the Kaua‘i Senior Centers program. This is what we wanted — to let people know what the program is about.”
