Hi guys! I have an ongoing Kickstarter for a "hanafuda-style" deck that is mainly a deck for playing various games, but that can also be used for divination based on the Japanese imagery and its associated meanings, poems, and Japanese divination traditions (i.e. Onmyodo). You could maybe think of it as a type of "oracle deck". The limited edition (300 copies only ) is made by Oishi Tengudo in Kyoto, the world's oldest still active playing card maker. Unfortunately, these sets are all sold out at the moment, but I understand there are a lot of pledge-changing/cancellations likely to happen on the last day of the campaign (April 20th or strictly speaking the morning of April 21st if you're in a US-ish timezone).
Spread of cards from the "Standard Edition Silver" deck with hand-stamped silver on 7 of the cards.
What's quite special about the deck is that both the standard editions and the limited editions are entirely handmade in the Italian-Japanese tradition of "bordi rivoltinati" or "urabari", which is how the original Italian tarot cards were made, with a paper slightly larger than each card pasted onto their backs, with its corners or borders folded around the front of the card, creating a framed look and very thick, sturdy cards. The backing paper in Italian decks would often just be white or feature a simple geometrical pattern (dots or diagonal lines) with a logo in the middle of the back, while these cards have single-colored purple backs, more in line with Japanese traditions. The Japanese picked up this method of making cards via the Portuguese, though it appears this manner of manufacture died out there a lot sooner than it did in Italy, where it actually continued until the 1960s according to one source. In Japan, Nintendo has figured out how to automate it and makes factory-produced cards in this way. Oishi Tengudo is one of only 2 companies still doing it entirely by hand.
So how does divination with this deck work? The deck comes in two patterns with different motifs on the court cards and jokers. For divination purposes, I definitely recommend the "Poets" version, unless you want to use the deck to predict the outcomes of actual battles!
The Poets deck consists of 58 cards in total: 40 pip cards in 4 suits represented by 4 flowers/plants, in turn, representing the 4 seasons. 11 out of these feature unique imagery such as a crane, a boar, a moon on a starry sky, a cherry blossom feast, etc. Another 12 cards are based on various poems (mainly from the ancient poetry anthology Hyakunin Isshu) 4 written by Buddhist monks, 8 written by courtiers. Some of these also feature specific imagery such as a Japanese phoenix, a bird, Mt. Fuji, pouring rain, etc. There are an additional 6 cards (trumps if you will) featuring a Bodhisattva, a Dharma, Paradise, a Fukusuke doll, a Demon, and a blank card. Depending on what you are divining, I recommend dividing the 29 "feature-less" pip cards into one pile, and the remaining 29 card into another. The pip pile will be used only when you want something specific like a date in time (i.e. when something is going to happen), or a cardinal direction.
29 feature-less pip cards - "time/direction cards"
The remaining 29 cards - "meaning cards"
A PDF describing how the different cards can be read will be sent as a PDF to all backers. This document is still a bit of a work-in-progress, and getting some help in making it as useful as possible both for experienced readers and beginners is part of why I joined these forums in the first place (I'll be posting more about this after the campaign's over and there's hopefully some room for a breather). I will here give a few examples of how some specific cards can be read, though. For the non-poem cards, I've based the suggested meanings on what the images are commonly associated with in Japan, but also, as somebody who is on the editorial board of one of the largest Japanese-English dictionaries, I also draw a lot of meaning from words, proverbs, and idioms.
The crane in Japan is a symbol of great luck, longevity, fidelity, and authority (because of it's booming voice). It's a symbol for the New Year and can be seen as the beginning of something new. Viewed negatively (i.e. turned upside down, if that's your cup of tea), the card can also be viewed as escaping from something old, or being domineering/silencing others. Also it can be read as a reference to greed and jealousy, specifically of the "turtle" card - this comes from the fact that while the crane is traditionally said to live for a 1000 years, the turtle is said to live for 10,000.
This is one of my favorite cards, depicting the courtier Kiyohara no Fukayabu, considered on of the Thirty-Six Heian-era Immortals of Poetry, and author of the following poem:
Flowery language notwithstanding, this poem is really about "pissing the night away" as they might say in the UK - hence the sake bottle and cups pictured on the card. But it's also lamenting the disappearance of the moon, and though it's not usually categorized as a poem about love, some regard it as one and reads it as the lamentation of a relationship coming to end. This card can be read in various ways - as a reference to overdrinking or any kind of party, but also about forgetting or missing something (i.e. the sudden realization that the Moon is gone) while enjoying oneself.In the summer night
The evening still seems present,
But the dawn is here.
To what region of the clouds
Has the wandering moon come home?
I will include another poem card just to demonstrate how these poems may be ancient, but are in no way mossy. This one depicts Kōkamonin no Bettō, who was an attendant to Empress Koka. She is most famous for this poem:
This is a poem about a one-night stand, but can also be read as a reference to a brief encounter with somebody one cannot forget, or unrequited love in general.After one brief night--
Short as a piece of the reeds
Growing in Naniwa bay--
Must I forever long for him
With my whole heart, till life ends?
OK, I hope that gives you something of an idea how this deck can be used, if a little fuzzily. Obviously using this deck will require a bit of an effort to get acquainted with, esp. for anybody who is not accustomed with the Japanese imagery, not to mention the poems, but you know, why should things be easy?
It might be a little comfort to know though that in the Japanese tradition of divination, using "cheat sheets" (or entire books, actually) while divining was entirely accepted and even standard, lending more authority to the divinator (because this was evidence they weren't just making stuff up!).Let me know if anybody has any questions/opinions about anything!