Exotic playing cards featuring the world-renowned Sumio Kawakami’s woodblock artwork, manufactured by Nintendo. An artist who has been featured in MoMA, who also has a museum in Japan, dedicated solely to his artwork.
This card set is a reproduced edition of Sumio Kawakami’s woodblock print “Torampu-e” from 1939. Each suit emphasizes a theme: Clubs feature a Japanese theme, Spades feature a Chinese theme, Hearts feature a European theme, and Diamonds feature a Near East theme. Each number set features a motif as well. The jokers in this collection are called “Fukusuke”, a large-headed character that is said to bring good luck and fortune. This allows each card to be unique to its own and completes a 54 card deck featuring different artwork per card.
Contains 2 decks of exotic playing cards.
Sumio Kawakami
Born in 1895, Sumio Kawakami was an English teacher and a self-taught Hanga Artist. At the age of 22, he lived in America and Canada doing small jobs before moving back to Japan to where he became an English teacher and his art career started. In the 1960’s Sumio gained recognition, which led to his artwork featured in many exhibits and a museum devoted solely to Sumio’s work was created.
Okuno Karuta Ten
The Okuno Karuta Shop was established back in 1921 originally named Ikuka Okuno Shoten. As of 1975, they moved their store to their current location and opened sales up to the general consumer. Their second floor of the building is an exhibition, displaying a vast variety of different types of cards and artwork. They not only import a variety of cards and games, but they also produce their own as well. They currently have a variety of indoor games from playing cards to chess pieces.
Exotic Playing Cards - 2 Decks
Dimensions
• 5.8 in x 4 in x 1.5 in
Materials
• Paper Cards
• Wooden Box
Weight
• 11.5 oz
Origin
• Tokyo, Japan