New Nintendo Game System!

Move over, Wii and DS. Nintendo's just released a new game system, and on paper, it looks great. In fact... it IS paper.

Hiroko and I spotted this newly-released set of reproduction karuta cards at a tiny bookstore incogruously tucked between fish stalls in Tokyo's Tsukiji Market. They're called Osakana Karuta ("Fish Cards"), and they were co-produced by the Okuno Karuta Company in concert with Nintendo. Karuta have been around in Japan for centuries, but it turns out the history of this particular set is as fascinating as the artwork is charming.

Originally created in 1937 by a Tsukiji Central Fish Market PR man named Hideo Hasegawa as part of a campaign to promote fish sales, the cards feature light-hearted puns based on the names and appearances of various edible sea-life. Above, a hungry anglerfish stuffs his huge mouth, yari-ika ("spear squid") and a cuttlefish are compared to their namesakes, and a procession of hotaru-ika ("firefly squid") light up the night. This being the 1930s, several cards featured military themes, while another portrayed a whale being harpooned at sea.

In spite of his obvious sense of humor and the vigor with which he approached his work, increasingly stringent government regulations and the strain of the wartime economy combined to dash Hasegawa's ambitions. In frustration, he resigned from his job as section chief of the company that administrated the Tsukiji market, only to find himself drafted by the military. He died on the battlefield in New Guinea at the age of thirty-five.

Being made of flimsy cardboard, few of the Osakana Karuta survived the childhoods of the kids to whom they were given as toys. Today, only one complete set of the roughly five thousand originally produced is known to exist. While it might sound strange that the same company known for unleashing the Wii and DS is interested in reproducing a seventy year old set of paper cards, Nintendo has actually been around for a lot longer than you might realize: they were originally founded in 1889 as a purveyor of hanafuda, a card-game relative of the karuta. After all: cards are a form of "game system" too!

Comments

[Gen Kanai]

Not quite as old as karuta, this Nintendo game system is also paper based...

http://flickr.com/photos/gen/2211517/

[jordan]

any one know a way i can buy these?

[Matt]

Try clicking on the first mention of Osakana Karuta and following the link -- it should bring up the Amazon.co.jp listing. I seriously doubt these are going to be available outside of Japan.

[AcroRay]

Someone should pass this along to PZ Myers' website!