Cards¶
The deck has 48 cards in 12 months of four cards each. The table below is generated from src/cards.c, so it always matches the game.
The names in this page's tables are the names the game prints. Hover a face-up card for half a
second on Easy and you get three lines it assembles at draw time: the month and the type from
tables in src/ui_card_tooltip.c:71-77, and the card's own name from CARDS[] in src/cards.c
with its id prefix cut off (ui_card_tooltip.c:98) - here February / Plum, Plain / Kasu,
Plain.
Card types¶
| Type | Count | Scoring role |
|---|---|---|
| Brights | 5 | Bright family (Goko, Shiko, Ame-shiko, Sanko) |
| Animals | 9 | Tane, and Ino-shika-cho (Butterflies, Boar, Deer). The Sake Cup is an animal. |
| Ribbons | 10 | Tanzaku, Akatan (Poetry), Aotan (Blue) |
| Plains | 24 | Kasu |
Special cards¶
- Rain Man (11-B): a Bright. It changes Shiko into Ame-shiko and blocks Sanko when it is in a three-Bright pile.
- Sake Cup (09-A): an animal. It forms Hanami-zake with the Curtain and Tsukimi-zake with the Moon, except in Tournament and Yakuza. In KK-ADD-10 it also counts as a Plain.
- Poetry ribbons (01, 02, 03): the Akatan set.
- Blue ribbons (06, 09, 10): the Aotan set.
Rain Man and Sake Cup:
Rain Man (November Bright, left) and Sake Cup (September Animal, right).
Poetry ribbons — the Akatan set (January, February, March):
Blue ribbons — the Aotan set (June, September, October):
Full list¶
| ID | Card image | Month | Card | Type | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 |  |
January (Pine) | 01-B Crane | Bright | |
| 1 | |
January (Pine) | 01-RP Poetry | Ribbon | Poetry ribbon |
| 2 |  |
January (Pine) | 01-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 3 |  |
January (Pine) | 01-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 4 |  |
February (Plum) | 02-A Warbler | Animal | |
| 5 | |
February (Plum) | 02-RP Poetry | Ribbon | Poetry ribbon |
| 6 |  |
February (Plum) | 02-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 7 |  |
February (Plum) | 02-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 8 |  |
March (Cherry) | 03-B Curtain | Bright | |
| 9 | |
March (Cherry) | 03-RP Poetry | Ribbon | Poetry ribbon |
| 10 |  |
March (Cherry) | 03-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 11 |  |
March (Cherry) | 03-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 12 |  |
April (Wisteria) | 04-A Cuckoo | Animal | |
| 13 |  |
April (Wisteria) | 04-R Ribbon | Ribbon | |
| 14 |  |
April (Wisteria) | 04-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 15 |  |
April (Wisteria) | 04-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 16 |  |
May (Iris) | 05-A Bridge | Animal | |
| 17 |  |
May (Iris) | 05-R Ribbon | Ribbon | |
| 18 |  |
May (Iris) | 05-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 19 |  |
May (Iris) | 05-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 20 |  |
June (Peony) | 06-A Butterflies | Animal | |
| 21 | |
June (Peony) | 06-RB Blue | Ribbon | Blue ribbon |
| 22 |  |
June (Peony) | 06-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 23 |  |
June (Peony) | 06-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 24 |  |
July (Clover) | 07-A Boar | Animal | |
| 25 |  |
July (Clover) | 07-R Ribbon | Ribbon | |
| 26 |  |
July (Clover) | 07-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 27 |  |
July (Clover) | 07-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 28 |  |
August (Pampas) | 08-B Moon | Bright | |
| 29 |  |
August (Pampas) | 08-A Geese | Animal | |
| 30 |  |
August (Pampas) | 08-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 31 |  |
August (Pampas) | 08-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 32 | |
September (Chrysanthemum) | 09-A Sake Cup | Animal | Sake Cup |
| 33 | |
September (Chrysanthemum) | 09-RB Blue | Ribbon | Blue ribbon |
| 34 |  |
September (Chrysanthemum) | 09-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 35 |  |
September (Chrysanthemum) | 09-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 36 |  |
October (Maple) | 10-A Deer | Animal | |
| 37 | |
October (Maple) | 10-RB Blue | Ribbon | Blue ribbon |
| 38 |  |
October (Maple) | 10-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 39 |  |
October (Maple) | 10-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 40 | |
November (Willow) | 11-B Rainman | Bright | Rain Man |
| 41 |  |
November (Willow) | 11-A Swallow | Animal | |
| 42 |  |
November (Willow) | 11-R Ribbon | Ribbon | |
| 43 |  |
November (Willow) | 11-P Lightning | Plain | |
| 44 |  |
December (Paulownia) | 12-B Phoenix | Bright | |
| 45 |  |
December (Paulownia) | 12-P1 Plain | Plain | |
| 46 |  |
December (Paulownia) | 12-P2 Plain | Plain | |
| 47 |  |
December (Paulownia) | 12-P3 Plain | Plain |
Composition check (from cards_validate() invariants): 5 Brights, 9 Animals, 10 Ribbons, 24 Plains = 48 cards.
The sheet this deck was drawn from¶
These 48 are the game's own rendering of a shape that is over two centuries old: twelve columns of four, one column per month, the four ranks of the month down the column. This is a printed sheet of the traditional pattern, in the same order the tables above use.
The month names are the ones the game keeps, in the order src/cards.c lays the deck out. The
game's own sheet is assets/atlas.png: twelve columns of 176 x 286 cells, 2112 x 1144
(src/ui_theme.h:41-42), the same grid, column for column, and it is where every thumbnail in this
wiki is cut from (tools/make_card_images.py).
Two things worth checking against it, because both are easy to get wrong from the rules alone.
Columns are months, rows are not ranks. Any two cards in a column match, so the January crane
and the January plain are the same suit to the engine and the art never enters into it - which is
also why the atlas is ordered by id, month first: a month with no bright puts its Animal in the top
row, and that is where April's Cuckoo (id 12) sits. Nobody would call that row "the brights".
The ribbon colours are the real ones. The three poetry strips - January, February, March - and
the three blue ones - June, September, October - are the same six cards on both sheets:
01-RP, 02-RP, 03-RP and 06-RB, 09-RB, 10-RB in the tables above, Akatan and Aotan in
Yaku. The game renamed nothing and moved nothing; it just drew it like Giger.