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Kousai no Tomo
The Kousai no Tomo set was a luxurious and complete Hachi-Hachi (hanafuda game) set manufactured by Nintendo since as early as the 1930's (or even earlier) to as late as the 1970's.
The set may vary in packaging. The cheaper sets come in large paulownia boxes, while the more expensive sets come in a closeable carrying case similar to those seen in Mahjong sets. Some sets from the 1930's also come in a uniquely designed cardboard box with a cloth cover, meant to resemble a thick book.
The Kousai no Tomo set was advertised by Nintendo as "not only a sophisticated and elegant indoor gaming equipment, but also a tool for attracting interest in the ancient Japanese game of Hanafuda by learning how to use the set", hoping that it "will inevitably have a great effect on the modern social environment".
Contents[]
Depending on the age of the set, the contents may vary. However, the latest sets include the following:
- Two Nintendo hanafuda decks, one with a red back and one with a black back.
- Four dice, used to decide the dealer and the seating position of the players.
- Six score baskets usually made of woven bamboo, used to hold each player's point counters during the game.
- Go stones used as point counters, which come in black and white. Black stones are worth 1 points each, while white stones are worth 1 kan each (1 kan = 10 points). They are usually stored in an included cloth purse when not in use.
- Kan chips which are also used as point counters, but are usually initially reserved in the "bank" during the game. They come in various kan denominations: 5 kan, 10 kan, 25 kan, 50 kan, and 100 kan.
- Kashi-fuda, cards with images of sweets, refreshments, or an entertainer on them. They come in denominations of 1, 10, 50, and 100. The Japanese word "kashi" is a pun; it literally means "sweets", but the word sounds similar to the word meaning "debt". The typical Kousai no Tomo leaflet mentions nothing about these cards, but another leaflet printed sometime in the early 1960's described them as something that can be borrowed when a player runs out of points, in similar fashion to kan chips. However, the true intended purpose of these cards is that they were treated as somewhat of a "monopoly money" in the game (i.e. a substitute for real money, whose use would make it an act of gambling), and they were exchanged during the end of each 12-round games.
- Six Daruma tokens, each used to indicate that a player ran out of points during the game and has to borrow a certain amount of kan from the "bank" (50 kan according to the Kousai no Tomo leaflet).
- Ginmi Medal, a diamond-shaped token that is given to the winner of a full 12-round game, which the winner would hold on to if they played another full 12-round game. The leaflet describes that each player initially has 50 points worth of go stones, but they technically start with 100 points. The 50-point difference is called "Ginmi", which is given to the winner of a full 12-round game.
- Mizuten token, a long, ribbon-shaped token used by the dealer of a round to declare that they are in mizuten, which would give bonus points to the dealer if they win the round. (A dealer in mizuten must join in the 3-player flower-matching phase regardless of what cards were dealt to their hand. In other words, the dealer is not allowed to drop out of the round after seeing the cards in their hand.)
- Ame-Kiri Zettai token, a token shaped like a gunbai fan, used to indicate that a round is in Zetsubai ("grand field"), which would quadruple the payments during the round.
- Some sets would also include a round indicating tray, a cardboard or thin wooden tray with 12 pits. Go stones would be placed on the pits to indicate which round the game was currently at.
Aftermath[]
It was eventually discontinued due to the decline in popularity of the game Hachi-Hachi and hanafuda in general, especially in the 1960's and 1970's.
Nintendo tried to regenerate interest in the game in 1976 by releasing a "modernized" and more budget-friendly Hachi-Hachi set called the "Hanafuda 88 Set". It included a rulesheet which simplified the complicated rules of Hachi-Hachi, and replaced the go stones and kan chips with various colored poker chips.
The same rules for Hachi-hachi that was used in Hanafuda 88 Set (minus the mizuten rule) started to be included in each Nintendo hanafuda deck, and still continues to be included to this day. As for the "Hanafuda 88 Set" itself, despite being heavily advertised by Nintendo, it was not very popular, and it was discontinued pretty early.
Eventually, in 1994, Nintendo included another rulesheet to their hanafuda decks, which included the rules to the game of "Modern Koi-Koi". Around this time, Koi-Koi had already overtaken Hachi-Hachi in popularity as the hanafuda game, due to its simplicity and relatively fast gameplay.